Through the Eyes of my Soul
by jpangel97
Summary: Maka faces hardships after she comes back from a mission without the use of one of her most important senses. She struggles everyday with the knowledge that life may never be the same. Soul tries to help her but there is only so much he can do. With the help of her friends and perhaps the love of one, she may find that there is more to seeing than just what the eyes can tell you.
1. The Story Begins

**Hi everyone this is jpangel97, and this is my first attempt at a Soul Eater fan-fiction. For those of you who know my other story "The Beast Within" for Power-puff girls that is still on hold as I have lost my muse for it and I still haven't received any help or suggestions on how to get the story to where it's supposed to go. While I will not out right abandon it, if someone wants it finished they need to say so and be willing to help. Anyway this story may or may not be a one-shot depending on how this first chapter turns out. It was inspired by both The3Ryans' KidxMaka story "The Chair" and the Lab Rats one-hour movie On the Edge and also on the character Toph from Avatar: the last air bender/ Legend of Korra. This is also a Kid and Maka story so anyone that doesn't like that, don't read it. I also will not be bashing Soul. I watched the anime first and could of sort of; yet not really see why people like to portray him as the villain or why they feel he has to be a douche bag to ultimately allow Maka and Kid to be a couple. To me, and my feelings towards him Soul is a pretty neutral character. But after completing the manga I saw how important they are to each other and how strong they are together; that is not to say that I want them as a couple. (I like the KidxMaka pairing too much for that.) Though I found them needing each other, it was not in a romantic sense. More like a sibling relationship, or like Soul filling in that 'they are as close as twins, yet completely different and somehow compliment each other' thing. So in other words in this story and any others I choose to make SOUL IS FINE WITH MAKA AND KID'S RELATIONSHIP! If anything the most negative thing he will feel is a little left out that they don't spend as much time together as before because he misses his friend/sister, not being a depressive loser over the one that got away (-_-) Am I clear? Besides he has other issues I can take advantage of if I so desire (^_^) (^-^) Thank you, for reading this humongous author's note if you did and enjoy.**

 ***Side note this will follow the storyline told by the anime, as it a bit easier to work with, with fewer continuity details I would need to remember because I like making my stories link with the original plot. However I will most likely incorporate little pieces from the manga that I thought would work well with this little plot bunny my mind has conceived.**

 **Through the Eyes of my Soul**

 **Maka's POV**

The sand of Nevada's desert wiped across my face as I rode behind Soul on his motorcycle, Kid flew above us at a steady pace on Beelzebub, while Black*Star ran alongside us. Surprisingly quiet for once which was bother a pleasant change, but also a bit disturbing. Sneaking a glance in his direction I noticed his eyes were drooping slightly with slight bags just barely visible underneath.

' _Odd,'_ I thought. On closer examination I also noticed he was running a little slower than usual too. A fact that would not have been noticed by anyone that didn't know him as well as we did, especially since the two of us had known each other since we were mere toddlers. _'I don't think I've ever seen Black*Star tired like that.'_ It was at the completion of that thought that Black*Star finally noticed my stare.

"What's up Maka? Was my awesomeness too much that you had to stare at my godly image?" he yelled over the engine with his usual big smile and arrogant tone to accompany the statement.

Normally I would have ignored him or given a dry comeback about his attitude but I wasn't fooled by his attempt to act normal. I could see even clearer, when he turned his face in my direction to speak, how tired he was.

I hesitated for second, looking down at the wave of sand the bike made as we sped across this dry expanse of land before lifting my gaze back to Black*Star. My eyes were serious and my lips formed a slight frown, "Black*Star… are you okay?"

I watched as his smiled slightly faded and his eyes widen just the smallest bit. He realized I was onto him.

"That's a laugh, a big star like me is always a hundred percent Maka. The desert heat must be making you see things."

As if to make a point, Black*Star sped up so he ahead of the rest of us, and all I was able to see of him was his back and the flowing of his neck scarf in the wind. I closed my eyes and sighed in slight frustration, like the dedicated student I am I didn't like the idea of not knowing something; almost as much as I disliked the idea of not being able to help a troubled friend.

I would let it go for now, and let Tsubaki handle whatever the problem was, if there was still no change I would see what I could do. I felt eyes on me, so I opened my own and glanced in the stare's direction. I was met with one of Soul's red eyes as he tried to look both forward and at me at the same time, then towards my right as Kid lowered himself down to hover beside us, a curious and slightly concerned look on his face.

"What was all that about?" Soul asked turning his head forward once more.

"It's just… did either of you notice that Black*Star's been… kinda quiet?"

"Now that you mention it, he has been particularly withdrawn for the past few days," Kid's said, eyes narrowed in contemplation as he watched the sand pass beneath his. He looked back at me with an eyebrow raised "Could it be that he has something on his mind?"

"He'd need to have a mind before he could have something on it." Earning a metallic sounding laugh from Liz and a fit of giggles from Patti.

"Soul!" I said giving his back small punch, which returned with a chuckle of his own.

"Aw come on Maka, this is Black*Star we're talking about. Whatever it is I'm sure he'll be fine."

"Yeah Maka," I looked to see Liz's face reflect on the shining surface of the gun in Kid's right hand, "this _is_ Black*Star we're talking about, and we all know he's never down for long."

"Big sis is right Maka! You worry to much, now turn that frown upside down!"

A small smile broke out on my face that I just couldn't suppress, "Your right Patti." Her carefree, easygoing nature and happiness was just too infectious for me not to cheer up a little bit. She burst into another fit of happy giggle, "Of course I am!"

Kid gave his own chuckle before turning to me again, "All the same I think I'll keep an eye on him, just to be safe." I could tell from the tone of his words he was doing this for my sake as well as Black*Star's; that's just the kind of person Kid is and for that I was grateful.

My smile grew at this and I nodded my approval, "Thanks Kid." His lips curled into a sincere smile, as a silent _'your welcome'_ we looked at each other for a few seconds longer than necessary before we heard a yell from the very topic of our conversation.

"Are you two done? The Great Black*Star would like to get on with this mission without having to watch the two of you make goo-goo eyes at each other!" At that Soul, Liz and Patti burst into another fit of laughter.

We both blinked as we were awoken from our mini-trance and quickly averted our eyes, too embarrassed to face each other. I could feel my cheeks heating at the implication of Black*Star's words, but more for the action that had warranted his response.

"Oh shut up moron!"

' _Quit being stupid Maka, Black*Star is just being an idiot and Kid was just being a good friend. No need to get so worked up over this.'_ I chanced a glace at Kid's face and saw he too had a faint tone of pink on his normally pale complexion, if anything it made me feel a bit better knowing I wasn't the only one embarrassed.

"Black*Star! There's no need to tease them!" came Tsubaki's customary scolding.

"All I'm saying is if they wanna have a stupid mushy love moment they should respect their god enough to wait until he has left so he does not feel the need to gage at having witnessed it!"

"Well it looks like he's already starting to act like the old Black*Star," I could literally _feel_ Kid's eye twitch in annoyance.

"And to think I was worried about him," Kid turned to me with an apologetic look on his face, still pink but slowly fading.

This brought a small smile back to my face and I shook my head to let him know it wasn't his fault. He nodded before rising to the height he'd previously been flying and I sighed in slight relief, I think he understood that after our 'little moment,' I guess you could call it, we both could use a little space.

' _Funny thing is… there's always space between us,'_ that sudden thought actually made me pretty sad because of how true it was. Kid and I had been friends for a while now, but we rarely ever did anything together, away from the others. _'Which, now that I think about it, doesn't make any sense.'_ Kid was a great person and friend who I've always enjoyed being around, despite his occasional symmetry fit and even then it wasn't all that bad.

A lot of the time it was actually quite entertaining; the day they had first met Kid came to mind at that thought and I couldn't suppress the giggles that slipped out as I remembered the beating he had given my partner and Black*Star. It was especially funny when he had shot the two with soul bullets while they we're having one of their weird bromance moments. He had clearly defeated them, and easily too, had it not been for Soul cutting his bangs and made them asymmetrical.

Soul turned back to me at the sound of my random giggle fit, "You okay or have you just found a way to go insane without the black blood?"

"No," I replied looking to my left, "I was just thinking about the fight you and Black*Star had with Kid the day you met." I looked him in the eyes and gave him a smirk, "I was remembering how badly he kicked both your asses."

Soul looked irritated for a moment at the mention of his and Black*Star's, less than successful partner-up, but he didn't miss a beat with his reply.

"Humph maybe Black*Star was onto something if your telling me your thinking about Kid."

All I saw was trademark shark toothed grin before he looked forward again. My blush had returned, 'That's it, these two are _so_ getting Maka chopped when we finally stop.' An evil smile spread across my face in my anticipation to exact a little revenge on two jerks I called my friends.

 **Kid's POV**

' _Well that was embarrassing,'_ I thought as I raised Beelzebub back to our original position above Soul and Maka. _'Though I have to wonder; what exactly was that?'_ I had never really shared a moment like that with someone before and I wasn't entirely sure how I should feel about it. It wasn't unpleasant; by all means it felt rather nice. When she had looked into my eyes I just couldn't find it in myself to look away; the whole thing itself seemed so causal at first, one friend simply giving reassurance to another… But the longer it lasted it felt as if the two of us were share something far more intimate. I was pulled from my thoughts at by the sound of Liz's chuckle, "Well if that wasn't one of the sweetest things I've ever seen."

"What are you talking about?"

"Wasn't it obvious Kid?" I turned to Patti as she too laughed at my confusion, "No, not really."

The two laughed again at my lack of understanding and I'll be honest when I say it was beginning to piss me off.

"Not surprising that he doesn't get it Patti, men are clueless like that."

"Hahaha… your right sis"

I my eye began to twitch in my irritation, "Well if I'm so _'clueless'_ as you say would you please tell me what it is that I am so obviously missing?"

Liz sighed as if giving me an explanation was the equivalent of the stockpiles of homework she and Patti refused to do.

"Um _hello_ , the comforting words, the prolonged staring into each other's eyes," she paused as if for dramatic effect and I could just feel her smug smirk through our resonance, "the blushing in embarrassment at being caught in the act."

The mention of said event caused me to blush as I had before, though I still could not deduce why. "So, what's your point?" I asked looking anywhere but at the guns in my hands.

"Only that you two just reenacted one of the most classic scenes in pretty much any and every romance movie ever made."

"I beg your pardon!" My blush simply grew stronger as I quickly glanced down to make sure I hadn't attracted any attention from the others with my raised voice. Fortunately Soul, and Black*Star still had their focus on moving forward, while Maka seemed lost in thought. I watch her for a moment as her mouth formed a frown, after a few seconds it shifted into a smile followed by, what I could only assume by the shaking of her shoulders, to be laughter. I'm not sure why, but for some reason, seeing her happy expression brought the ghost of a smile to my face.

"See," and I was then reminded of why I had looked down in the first place.

"Liz that is ridiculous, Maka and I are friends; good friends but nothing more. I assure you that whatever you are thinking it is simply from watching too many chick flick late at night."

"Fine, be in denial that's fine. But just so you know that's what all the guys in those movies said too and each one ended up falling for the female protagonist. And hard too might I add."

"Kid loves Maka Kid loves Maka Kid loves Maka…" Patti started to sing.

"PATTI! Shut up before the others hear you!" I shouted at her in a whisper. "And I do not love Maka," I added as an after thought.

"Yet," I heard Liz mumble. I decided that the best thing to do from this point on was just to ignore them until we reached our mission location.

After another 20 minutes of silence we finally arrived at the site of our group mission; at the edge of Nevada's desert, where the endless sand met the beginning of fertile soil, a mysterious underground temple had been discovered.

Father had informed us that it was at one point used by a small faction of witches that had plotted a direct assault against the DWMA in it's younger years. The witches of said faction had all but disappeared; having either been defeated and their souls collected or had simply abandoned the group, deciding it was too great a risk for too little likelihood for success. In it's final days the head witch of the faction placed a spell on the temple, so that it and any secrets it may contain would be hidden forever from the eyes of death.

When asked the reason for its sudden reappearance Professor Stein had theorized that it was likely the influx of the madness of Asura's wavelength. The madness had initially strengthened the doubtlessly deteriorating magic that kept the spell active all these centuries, similar to plugging in a cellphone that was close to dying, and with his destruction, meant an end to it's spread across the globe. _'The sudden stop of madness flowing in was like what one would expect if a drug addict were to quite cold turkey; a crash would be unavoidable,'_ is the way Stein had described it.

Though deserted, it was highly likely that a wide assortment of traps had also been set as a secondary precaution. While not every witch was as cunning and powerful as Medusa or Arachne (hopefully), one still had to be wiry; a witch was a witch no matter their skill level and as such had the potential to be just as dangerous.

The mission itself was simple enough; while it was clear the witches' main focus was the destruction of the DWMA these witches had also taken to stealing human souls and using them as a way to gain power. How they did this or if it had even worked is still unknown as it was only weapons that seemed to even have the capacity to absorbing souls; for all we knew these witches could have done experiments as a way to test their twisted theories. The thought of such a thing reminded one too much of Medusa for comfort, so in addition to uncovering any research that may have been left behind that may pertain to such things, we were to collect any souls we found and return them to Death City. Simple.

Black*Star had managed to reach the entrance a good five minutes before the rest of us and was currently busying himself with doing handstand pushups using only the first two finger of his right hand, Tsubaki still in weapon form, in his left behind his back. I arrived and gently brought Beelzebub to the ground as Black*Star counted his way into the 300's, Soul and Maka pulling up next to me a second later.

"Finally," said Black*Star as he stopped the exercise to craned his neck back as far as it would go to look at us.

"The Great Black*Star was beginning to think he would have to complete this mission on his own! Not that it would be problem for a big star like me," he proclaimed give one more push into a flip that landed him on his feet. _'Yup, he is definitely fine.'_

"I gotta say though, ya gave me enough time for a quick arm exercise. Doing 307 in the air push ups with my fingers isn't too bad I guess," a smug, boasting smirk on his face.

' _Wait… WHAT THE HELL DID HE JUST SAY!'_

"Hold it right there Black*Star," I shouted, grabbing his arm to stop him from entering the temple and spun him around to face me.

"DID I JUST HEAR YOU SAY YOU DID 307 PUSH UPS!"

"Yeah, so?"

It was at that statement that my already low tolerance for asymmetry disappeared.

"SO? SO! YOU END WITH 7! NOT THE BEAUTIFULLY SYMMETRICAL NUMBER 8, BUT THE RETCHED 7! I DEMAND YOU DO ONE MORE TO MAKE IT SYMMETRICAL."

I screeched as I pointed at him and stomped my left foot.

Black*Star merely looked back at me with blank, dumb expression before he snorted and turned away from me.

"No way." _'Why that no good bastard!'_

"You asymmetrical buffoon! Would it kill you to for once in your life to be symmetrical!"

" _Please_ , nothing can kill the great Black*Star!"

"Than why won't you do it?" I yelled.

"Because the Great Black*Star does whatever he wants; someone as godly as me doesn't have to worry about your stupid symmetry."

That had been the last straw, I decided. I was about to completely annihilate this fool for his gross disrespect of something as sacred as symmetry, when someone bet me to it.

From behind, Black*Star's cranium met the spine of a particularly thick hardcover book.

I watched as the poor ignoramus fell to the ground on his back with a steady stream of blood gushing from his latest wound. I took this sight in with no small amount of satisfaction and smirked. _'That's what you get'_

"Maka chop," I looked back up to see Maka's arm still extended with a clearly not amused expression on her face. This caused my smirk to fall.

"Are we done here?" one of her eyebrows raised, still in the same position.

"Um… but he still hasn't…" It was clear by her stare that she was already showing me more patience than she actually possessed at the moment, I decided that the best thing I could do to thank her for punishing the asymmetrical fool was to not be the one to irritate her further. I had never received a Maka chop; even for my more extreme symmetry outburst I had never warranted the blonde meister's fury and quite frankly I wished to keep it that way.

"I… suppose I can get him to rectify his grave error later…?" the statement came out as more of a question as gauged her response.

Her gaze softened as Maka finally dropped the arm that held her book, "Alright then lets get this mission started."

I breathed a sigh of relief and blinked as I noticed something odd, "Maka… why is Soul also on the ground unconscious?"

He was in a similar state as Black*Star, _'When did this happen? Was this while I was screaming at Black*Star?'_

I noticed from the corner of my eye the ghost of a smile on her lips, "Don't worry about it" was all she said as she faced the temple, eyes closed in concentration.

The structure itself wasn't much in terms of extravagance; it was a simple stone building much like that we had on the lost island, though this one was significantly smaller. It showed clear signs of aging, corrosion marks were scattered across the otherwise smooth stone and parts of the outer walls were visible crumbling.

"I can't sense any human souls yet, but I can clearly make out the lingering essence of strong magic."

"Well what are we waiting for?" It appeared Black*Star had finally woken up, "lets do this!"

And with that he ran inside, "Black*Star!"

"Sorry Maka, the Great Black*Star can't hear you over the sound of how awesome he is!"

The both of us could help but face-palm, this was so typical of him, we could hear his loud calls of _Yahoo_ and the sounds of Tsubaki's protests to wait for us in the distance.

"Let's just go before he does something stupid," Maka said extending her left arm out to a grumpy looking Soul. It seemed he had finally come to and was none too pleased with his meister at the moment, though you could clearly see she didn't care. Nonetheless he followed her silent order to transform.

"Agreed," as I removed Liz and Patti from their holsters underneath my jacket.

We nodded to each other as a sign that we were both ready to proceed and together we crossed the threshold into the darkened interior of the abandoned witches' temple.

 **Well it looks like this first chapter is roughly 3, 431 words. I was hoping for more but hey, not bad for the first one right? As I said this story depends on the reaction from you my dear readers, if the story seem like something you would continue to read please let me know and it will fuel my motivation to keep writing. Also if anyone gets any ideas while reading about what you would like to see or think of something that would make a good addition to the story feel free to tell me. I won't guarantee the idea will be used by they do help when I get stuck for inspiration. Thank you and don't forget to favorite and review.**


	2. A Fight in the Underground

**Well thanks to the few lovely reviews I received (Shout outs to NickyRockit for being the first to review, NutCracker1911, BlacklegBalo and darkanimebabe23. I really appreciate the kind words) I was encouraged to present you all with chapter two.**

 **A Fight in the Underground: Will our Heroes Prevail?**

 **Maka's POV**

The interior of the temple wasn't very impressive, though I'm not sure what more I was expecting really. I only had Arachne's hideout to compare it to and even then I hadn't gone inside, more in favor of going after Crona and Miss Marie when they when on their self appointed mission to go and take back Professor Stein from Medusa. I had only been able to catch a distant glimpse of Baba Yaga's Castle from where Soul and I had separated from Black*Star, but from what little I did manage to see I had to admit it was something to look at. Well as far as weird spider shaped castles go.

The walls, ceilings and floors of the temple were made of the same thick grey stone as the outside that was rough and course to the touch. Our shoes made soft, but definitely audible scuffing noises with each step.

The air was stale and full of dust that made me scrunch up my noise as the smell assaulted my senses, but that was to be expected of any place that had been hidden underground for so many centuries. It was also pitch black in here; the darkness growing thicker the farther in we seemed to go.

" _Man_ , only five seconds in and this place is already givin, me the creeps," Liz whimper.

We all knew of her irrational fear of anything ghoulish or terror inducing, which in retrospect was a bit ironic if you think about it, seeing as she was the weapon partner of a _grim reaper_.

So technically just from that fact alone Kid would fit the description of ghoulish and terrifying quite well. But she clearly felt no fear towards him, if all the times she got angry at him for his symmetry fits were anything to by.

I suppose that was the beauty of knowing and living with someone for so long. Their friendship was what allowed Liz to get passed her fear, if only somewhat, but hey baby steps. It was obvious that to her and Patti, Kid was like another sibling, a brother that may get on their nerves from time to time buy was no less important to them.

Liz continued to rant about all the horribly scary things that could be down here. Patti being no help whatsoever, only further freaked her sister out by adding to her ever-growing list and thought it would be a great idea to adding a soundtrack for the more frightful suggestions. While it was left to Kid to try in vain to simultaneously calm Liz and scold Patti for making it worse.

' _This probably makes Halloween a living nightmare for her'_ , I thought, as I couldn't stop an amused smile from slipping on my face. In the back of my mind I could feel Soul give an amused grin of his own through our resonance, _'no kidding.'_

We had reached the end of the entrance hall and had begun to descend down a long flight of stairs, Kid and I going down slowly and carefully to ensure that neither of us fell. The darkness had made it impossible to see the bottom, and made us feel as if we were walking into the abyss. Never to be seen again.

We had yet to come across Black*Star and Tsubaki, I was beginning to worry about them.

"Damn, how far was Black*Star able to get in this darkness?" He must have finally managed to settle his two weapons down, "I can't even see my hand in front of my—"

But Kid was cut off by the sudden lighting of torches that we hadn't noticed were nailed to the walls; and while I was grateful for being able to see where I was going this now had my meister's instincts on high alters.

"I don't like this," I could feel the little hairs on the back of my neck tingling.

If the torches were able to light themselves that meant we were right to assume that traps had been set and they had enough magic left in them to activate. _'But Black*Star came in before us, so shouldn't that mean these torches should have already been lit when we got here? Whatever was going on I really didn't like it'_

"Maka," Soul didn't need to finish. I was already extending my soul perception outwards, eyes closed and my brow scrunched as I focused.

"The magic is definitely getting stronger," I push my senses farther, deeper underground.

"Whatever power this place was able to syphon off from the Kishin's madness seems to be concentrated much farther down in what looks like…"

I scrunched my eyes tighter as the mixture of magic and madness appeared to be scattered all over the inside of the temple, covering everything in a cloud-like hazy that tried to block my sight, "the last chamber."

"That much I can sense as well, but I can't sense Black*Star," I felt the presence of his eyes turn to me, but I kept my own closed.

I understood the silent question in Kid's stare and focused my soul perception once more, this time narrowing my search to find the familiar soul Black*Star.

It took a few moments as the hazy was denser than expected, but surely enough I was able to get glimpse of our friend's soul before locking onto it like a homing beacon.

"Gotcha," I allowed myself a smile at my little accomplishment, until I noticed…

His soul was moving at a steady pace, then stopped…

Right at the threshold of the last chamber… _What a buffoon._

I face-palmed for the second time that day, "I swear, that idiot is going to be the death of himself and me."

"Let me guess… he's already at the end where most likely there will be an enemy waiting?"

"Bingo"

"WAS HIS NAME-O. B-I-N-G-O. B-I-N-G-O. B-I-N-G-O…"

"Well, we may as well hurry before he ends up either in over his head or destroying whatever is worth us coming here to get in the first place."

Together raced down the endless steps, far less afraid of falling now that we could see. The unlit torches that were ahead of us soon burst to life as we drew closer, and I felt the presence of Black*Star's soul grow stronger. We were getting close.

It was then that we all noticed…

"AND BINGO WAS HIS NAME-O. THERE…"

"PATTI!"

"SOWWY."

 **3** **rd** **Person's POV**

Black*Star was growing tired, which was unusual for someone like him.

He rarely every felt the bunt of physical exhaustion, even after training he still felt like he could always manage another 500 finger pushups or crunches. If he ever did tire himself out, the workout would have to be especially taxing on him both physically and mentally.

Maka had not been too far off the mark when she had noticed that something was off with the generally energetic and loud meister.

He knew he had been acting like more of an introvert recently, but he had hoped that no one would notice. Or if they did they would just leave it be; people often told him they wished he take a brake from his loud boasting of his awesome godliness. Enjoy the boring 'peace and quiet' while it lasted. _'You'd think they be grateful not to… what's that old saying? Oh yeah, not to look a gift horse in the mouth,'_ he thought with hollow laughter.

' _Though I don't get why anyone would wanna do that. Who wants to look in some horse's mouth anyway? Sounds nasty.'_

Why anyone wouldn't want to hear his amazing voice he had no idea, but he had been hoping on it.

Besides Tsubaki (he couldn't hide anything from her if he tried; they live together for one thing and she was too smart for that for another), Maka had been the only one to notice Black*Star's sudden change in demeanor.

' _Damn Maka, I'M FINE. I'm always fine.'_

But as his breathing was becoming labored and his already tired eyes drooping more than before, even the Great Black*Star began to doubt that he was fine. But he would never in a million years admit it to anyone, let alone out loud.

"Black*Star are you alright?"

"Heh, you sound like Maka. Don't worry about your god Tsubaki, he's just taking a breather."

He had been taking the hallways randomly, simply following wherever his feet wished him to turn in hopes of maybe finding something to fight. Anything that he could take some pent up frustration out on, and that's just what he got.

It was by mere chance that Black*Star had stumbled upon this beast of a kishin.

The thing was big, was his first thought at the sight of it. The second, it was disgusting. It had crawled out of a gaping whole in the middle of the last room; it's beady black eyes staring him down hungrily.

The kishin looked like an enormous glowworm; not particularly terrifying unless one had an immense phobia of insects. However this particular monster in addition to being pretty fast on it's six feet and wicked looking pincers happened to have the ability to shoot huge beams of light from it's tail, very similar to a laser.

So it was needless to say that Black*Star was more annoyed than anything and his fatigue was doing nothing to improve his mood. He had been dodging the kishin's attacks pretty well thus far, but that seemed the most he could do without a good opening. He was starting to think that it would have been better if he had just waited for Kid and Maka.

But if there was one thing the Great Black*Star didn't do, it was give up. He made it a point to never have such words be a part of his vocabulary; after all, that might make people think he had doubts about surpassing god one day. Couldn't have that.

So with renewed determination, Black*Star widened his stance, the star shape appearing in his eyes confirming that this would be the start of a whole new battle between them.

"I'm through playing around, Tsubaki I think it's about time we squash this bug"

"Right," he could feel her worry for him decrease she smiled from within her chain scythe form. He finally had his head in the game and that gave her confidence.

"Black*Star!"

The sound of two familiar voices halted said meister from his counterattack. He turned his head just enough to see his comrades running up to stand by his side as he once more faced his opponent.

"There you are," said Kid slightly irritated.

"Geez guys, where have you been? Your god was actually starting to get a little lonely," he gave the creature a smirk.

"This thing's not much for company."

The glow worm had ceased its attacks when Maka and Kid arrived; it had backed up farther into the room in order gauge the nature of this new development, deciding whether or not to consider the new arrivals a threat.

"Sorry it took us a bit, the left over madness was clouding my soul perception. Made looking for your soul like trying look through a dirty windshield."

"Now that that's out of the way lets— what the hell is that suppose to be?" asked Soul, clearly both confused and appalled with the enemy Black*Star had managed to find.

"Only you would go off alone and find a giant bug kishin."

"Oooh that's just great, and here I thought monsters would be bad but HUGE BUGS? That's a whole other kind of scary I can't stand, not to mention _gross_!"

Now every kishin was different, as most had at one point or another started out human before becoming corrupted with evil and would then start consuming other human souls. Of course there were exceptions and their strength varied by how many souls they had consumed; another thing that varied with kishin was their intelligence. A lot of them while still dangerous, were often not very bright, which gave less experience meisters a better chance at defeating them. If there was one thing every meister could agree on, is that there was nothing worse than an enemy that was both brawn and brains.

Unfortunately for our favorite group of meisters it appeared that this kishin was one that did indeed have some form of intelligence. For it showed them that it was not only able to understand English, but could also demonstrate what it thought of Liz's comments and opinions of insects.

Suffice to say it did not take it well…

The glowworm gave a mighty screech from its mouth, snapping its pincers before charging forward.

"Aw great Liz you made it mad!" Black*Star yelled just as the three were able to dodge.

"WELL _SORRY,_ like I was suppose to know that thing knew what I was saying!"

"Less talking more fighting Liz, I for one do not wish die by the likes of an overgrown firefly," Kid scolded as he began shooting along the glowworm's armored back.

The dust from the soul bullets cleared to reveal that the beast did have so much as a scratch.

"No good, it's back is too well protected!"

"Yeah tell me about it," replied Maka who was also having no luck getting through the creature's thin exoskeleton.

"We need to aim for the joints in the legs or the underbelly," nodding at her partner's advice Maka gripped her scythe tighter.

She waited a moment and watched as her target battled against her friends. The creature had begun racing around the room, crawling on walls and ceiling alike as Kid attempted to shoot more bullets, this time aimed to strike the thing's eyes. Black*Star, not wanting to be outdone swung one of his sickles to block it's path.

But this kishin was flexible as well as fast, redirecting its path flawlessly around the blade and bullets. Maka had to wait only a moment longer before she found the opening she had been looking for.

"Now Maka!"

Eyes wide and filled with determination she speed forward, the glowworm headed straight for her.

Raising Soul's blade in the air Maka ducked underneath the glowworm's head narrowly missing getting her own bitten off as it snapped its pincers. Bringing her blade even higher Maka cut into the beast's underside, pushing harder at the amount of friction she received as the thick shell protested against cold metal.

The kishin screamed in pain and rage, an ear splitting sound that had Black*Star and Kid momentarily stopping their attacks to cover their aching ears. The kishin then began flailing and smacking its tail on the ground in anger. Maka retracted Soul from the wound she made before spun to her left, using the momentum from her run to add extra force she managed to sever the kishin's right hind leg. Dropping to her knees Maka slid backwards across the rough ground, watching as the tail came down hard on the stone where she had been not even half a second before.

Despite the searing pain she felt erupting from her knees she could help a smirk. It appeared first blood was hers to claim, as she watched clear fluid gushed from what remained of the severed leg and a small portion leaking from the chest wound. Maka vaguely thought the cut she made reminded her of her partner's own scar, received from their first encounter with Crona. _'Huh, ironic.'_

The wound in the chest was shallow, not very deep due to how tough the exoskeleton still remained, even in the less protected stomach area. It wasn't enough to kill it or have it bleed to death but that wasn't a problem, minor wounds added up if you had enough of them and they took their toll on the body. No matter the creature that sustained them. As long as they could keep landing attacks the kishin would eventually go down. That is, if it didn't do the same to them first.

Catching her breath Maka slowly rose to her feet using Soul as a makeshift cane, wincing slightly as fire seemed to sizzle across the tender flesh of her knees. The movement had irritated them.

"Maka, you doing alright?"

Said girl examined the source of her pain; the coarse stone shredded the skin until there was none left to cover the pink tissue that was bleeding profusely. She grimaced at the sight; blood was steadily flowing down her shins and staining her shoes. _'That doesn't look good, I hope this doesn't get infected.'_

"I'm alright," Maka yelled, loud enough to reassure the others that she was well enough to continue. She had noticed how they paused after recovering from the scream to assess her for injuries; they seemed slightly worried about the bleeding of her knees, but let it go. Maka's defense and ability to take heavy hits may not be as high as Black*Star or Kid but she was by no means made of glass, nor was she a stranger to pain. She had sustained far worse before, this was nothing as far as she was concerned.

The kishin had finally stopped it's flailing and screaming and turned it's angry stare onto Maka; it wanted revenge for it's fallen appendage and it wasn't going to wait. With it's one strangled version of a war cry it charger her again.

"I don't think so ya freak! Speed star!"

With the added boost to his speed Black*Star shot forward, avoiding the snapping of the glowworm's pincers he landed a solid punch to it's grotesque face. The blow had enough force to push the monster a whole ten feet back, but it recovered quickly. In retaliation the kishin stomped the ground, shaking the whole room before it swung its tail, sending Black*Star flying across the room and slamming into the wall on his left.

But the kishin didn't stop to see if it had taken Black*Star out, no its was still focused on Maka and didn't hesitate to go after her again.

"Here it comes again," Maka stood her ground and watched as it grew closer. The kishin was fast despite missing a leg, though it's balance was definitely thrown off. She had barely been able to dodge the first time and with her legs injured it was useless to try to dodge from this distance, "brace yourself its almost here!"

Maka could feel her heart pounding in her chest as the adrenaline rushed through her veins, _'By the time I have Soul's blade up it'll already be right in front of me!'_ There was no time for her to think of a plan.

Not stopping, it was almost within a few feet of her and was lowering it's head to grab her with its pincers again; Maka waited for imminent impact. But just as it was about to attack, Maka felt the wind knocked out of her as she was grabbed from the right. She felt something strong and warm wrap around her waist and watched as she was lifted high off the ground, "Gotcha."

Maka turned her head to the left and saw Kid glance down at her, smirk on his face. He had summoned Beelzebub and rushed to get her out of the way when he realized she wouldn't be fast enough to save herself. Maka sighed in relief and gave him a appreciative smile, "Thanks for the save, I owe you one."

"No problem, you looked like you needed it," a bit of a smug tone in his voice as he continued to smirk, and this irritated her enough to drop her smile.

"Yeah, well I would've been fine on my own. I didn't ask for your help," Maka said turning away from him as her cheeks turned faint pink in slight frustration and embarrassment from needing his assistance.

"Ooh yes, how did I not see that?"

"Oh shut up!"

"Uh did you two forget that we are FIGHTING A GIANT MONSTER HERE?" exclaimed Soul.

"YEAH! Kid! Maka! Your god did NOT say it was alright to take a break!" It seemed Black*Star had peeled himself away from the indent he had created in the wall and resumed fighting.

While his two friends had moved to the safety of the air, Black*Star had managed wrap Tsubaki's chain around the glowworm's mouth, effectively muzzling it. Then jumped onto it's back and rode it as if it were a rodeo bull as it thrashed about, trying to get free. This kishin was nothing if not persistent, but so was Black*Star.

"As much as your god appreciates that you have so much faith in his ability to defeat this opponent alone, he would appreciate it more if one of you would get this thing to stop squirming around!"

Maka observed the creature a moment before a reckless plan came to mind. "I got an idea."

"Kid, I'm going to need you to throw me," she told him without taking her eyes off the agitated beast.

"Have you lost your mind?" he shouted as he looked at her.

"I'll take it from above, you take out its legs from below. If Black*Star can keep it in one place long enough we can finish this in one go."

Kid seemed hesitant for a moment as he thought it over, but he trusted Maka's judgment, "That just might work."

"Think you can fly there fast enough?" she asked challenged, smile back on her face. Her confidence invoked a smirk to return to his.

" _Please_ , don't insult me," he replied before sobering his expression. Kid shot toward the high ceiling, flying parallel to the wall. When he felt they had reach optimum height he used the momentum from their clime to propel them into a horizontal spin before he thrust Maka forward.

Once she left his grasp Kid took a nosedived toward the ground, "Liz, Patti get ready."

Pulling up at the last second he raced parallel across the floor, approaching the Kishin from behind. Like Maka he dove under the glowworm's raised tail and began shooting at the leg joints with the utmost precision he could manage.

At the same time Maka was dive-bombing directly above where Black*Star stood on the glowworm's back. Swinging Soul back she closed her eyes, "The legendary super-skill of the Scythe Meister: Witch Hunter!"

Through the power of their soul resonance Soul's blade grew and curved from both sides as the red eye opened wide along with something that resembling a mouth ripping opening.

"Black*Star!" she didn't need to say more as the assassin saw her approach from the corner of his eye and leapt of the creature's back. By then Kid had finished his task removing the remaining legs and had ducked under the head before the whole thing collapsed on top of him.

"There, at least when you die you'll be somewhat symmetrical," he said to himself as he turned to watch Maka make contact. The height of the fall had accelerated her original speed, adding force to the hit as Witch Hunter connected. With the additional force Maka was able to force half of her scythe into the kishin's back.

Cracks suddenly began to appear and spread from the hit, then all over it. Light erupted from them as the glowworm shrieked the loudest it ever had.

"Maka get away from it," Kid screamed at her, but the sound was too powerful to be heard over.

Maka tried to pry her scythe out but it was no use. The kishin was dying, but it would not leave this world quietly. Tremors could be felt all around the room, as the light the glowworm emitted from the cracks grew brighter, until finally it exploded.

The shockwave was so powerful Maka was hurled across the room like Black*Star had before, only with ten times more strength. The push had knocked the breath from her lungs, but it was the impact that stunned her whole body. But perhaps the most painful was the blinding white-hot energy that she was submerged in, and the sight of it was all she could see. It had all happened so fast…

Maka didn't even have enough time to blink…

 **Wow, that took way longer to put together than I thought. Plus you have no idea how much research and rereading I did to get this read for you guys. Now the story can really get on its way. Expect an update sometime after the 20** **th** **. By then I will have more free time to write more chapters. Like always read, review and favorite if you like this story. Your input and kind words always encourage me and your ideas help fuel my creative juices. Thank You.**

 **P.s. to any reads that happen to play video games, see if you can spot the two references I made to a current favorite right now. I haven't played the game myself, but the story and characters are amazing. There are even fan-fictions for it as well, so I recommend you check them out, especially Tsuki the Wolf, she is AMAZING ^_^**


	3. Introspection is Green and Gold

**Ah finally, we're back! Good news everyone, today was the last of my exams so I thought I would celebrate by releasing this chapter a day early. So far this is the longest running chapter, going at an impressive 5,000 words! I warn you, this where the angst comes in. So everyone reading prepare to follow our heroes as they embark on an emotional rollercoaster meant to keep you on the edge of your seat. (Warning: Involves the repeated use of the work fuck)**

 **Introspection is Green and Gold**

 **3** **rd** **Person's POV**

 _Darkness…_

 _It was all she could see…_

… _all she could perceive… it surrounded her._

 _It left her feeling… well she wasn't really sure._

 _So many different ways to feel about where she was and what was happening to her right now; she wasn't sure what emotion to feel, what thoughts she should think, what was even appropriate for a situation like this?_

 _Perhaps the best way she could describe what she felt was a potent sensation of numbness that she thought reached all the way to the marrow in her bones._

… _Or she would have thought that, if she could even feel the presence of her own body._

 _In the back of her mind she sensed a part of herself that was still lucid enough to recognize how dire a situation this was, that she should be conscious of and recognize the red flags her brain was holding up to warn her that this was not right!_

 _But for some reason, that fact that she couldn't detect her own physical form seemed like such a trivial concern. She found it funny how little she thought of it; did she even have a body?_

 _She must have… at one point or another if she thought of the numbness being able to touch any bones she might have had._

 _She also must have come from someplace other than where she was now. It was a logical enough explanation as to why she even knew of such things like bones, or bodies or anything really. After all, this entire place was full of nothing but darkness, with nothing going in or coming out. If this was all she had every experience, where had this knowledge of the other world come from?_

 _It was so hard to remember though, there was something blocking her memory, keeping her from recalling important information. Knowledge so basic that she couldn't possibly forget, yet had. Things like, who she was, were she came from, if she had any friends, a family, even her own name._

 _All of which she drew a blank…_

 _So such thoughts were ignored, pushed to the background where they could be thought more in depth later. Perhaps when the fog had cleared enough that she could actually answer these simple yet difficult questions. But for now she would focus her attention back to the matter at hand. The darkness._

' _What happened?'_

' _What is this place?'_

' _Its so empty…'_

' _Nothing here…_

 _nothing there…'_

 _nothing anywhere… or is it just so very full of nothing?'_

 _She would have turned to look around to emphasize her point if she thought that it was possible._

' _I can't tell if it goes on forever or if I'll hit a wall if I move far enough in one direction.'_

' _But then… where would I go?'_

' _What would I do, do I even want to leave?'_

' _Can I leave? I don't even know if I can move.'_

' _Am I even real?'_

 _These thoughts and the like were her only companions, as she just seemed to exist._

 _Merely a consciousness floating in a sea of complete and total nothingness; there was no end or beginning. Time was irrelevant and had no place here either, it was impossible to tell if it was a minute that passed, a year, a century or any time had passed at all._

 _This realm of shadows and open space was a mass of contradiction, it felt infinite yet suffocating, safe yet terrifying, familiar but at the same time alien and filled to the brim with the mystery of the unknown._

 _She didn't understand why she was here or how it had happened. She wasn't even sure if this was reality or not; she had just woken and found herself in the dark. But that only raised more questions. Was she truly awake and was this even darkness?_

 _These thoughts continued to churn back and forth, back and forth like an endless game of tennis._

' _You needed light to have darkness, there was no one without the other for they existed in perfect balance together.'_

' _Wait that last part...'_

 _It was then that she felt it…_

… _a spark._

 _Perfect balance…_

 _Those words held meaning to her. It was so familiar, so full of recognition she could feel it. Literally._

 _She was not sure how, but that thought had brought some self-awareness to the surface. Little bits of memory began to filter through her mind, the first thing to return was her name…_

' _Maka.'_

' _My name is Maka Albarn,' but the revelation brought with it no joy._

 _She was a scythe meister for the DWMA… she had a partner with white hair and sharp teeth… she was part of a resonance team with two boys… one was loud and obnoxious… the other cool and calm… yet had a tendency to get riled up over the disruption of… symmetry?_

 _That was all Maka could understand from the jumble of words and voices that whispered to her of things she had forgotten. Perhaps the echoes of events passed, she mused, before the voiced faded and fell silent._

 _Next came the awareness of having a physical self._

 _She became aware that she now had eyes again. But could not open them even if she wished; it was pointless for she knew the sight would not change. This blackness was ever present and haunting. She doubted that she would be leaving it behind any time soon, if ever._

 _The numbness that was still lingering in her mind was also present in her limbs it seems, which explained why she had no control over them. This gave her no comfort; what was the point of regaining awareness of your own appendages if you could not even use them?_

 _Finally came the awareness of the_ _ **state**_ _of her physical self._

 _More specifically speaking, the current condition of her flesh and blood body in the corporeal world._

 _It was slow at first, an incessant itching beginning in her knees. Maka vaguely wondered if that meant the wounds were infected, as the sensation spread to her arms and legs._

 _Wait… wounds? The itch was morphing into a steady burn across her skin._

 _Was she wounded? Her lungs felt constricted, as if they were being crush by an iron grip, her chest hurt to move as if there was weight pressing down on it. Maka struggled to get air, she couldn't recall when or if she had stopped or started breathing again._

 _Why she could not move? The burning had intensified into raging inferno. She could feel the unforgiving flames scorching across every muscle without mercy._

 _Was that the reason she was now in this state? It was after that final question that Maka lost the ability to think about anything other than the pain._

 _She became hyperaware of every fiber of her being, down to the very last atom and molecule that made up the person known as Maka Albarn. She was conscious of it all and every inch of herself was screaming, begging for the pain to stop. But this was an insuppressible, unrelenting kind of torment that had even the mightiest down on their knees and hoping for the sweet oblivion that only came with the promise of death._

 _Maka felt that if there was a hell that existed in all the worlds she was currently at it's very doorstep; if the fire she felt was anything to go by. The heat was overwhelming to her; threatening to melt her bones until they liquefied even though such a thing was not possible. Her lungs seemed close to collapsing in on themselves but she still tried to take in a breathe of precious oxygen._

 _But the most profound of the pain she felt came from her head, or more specifically her eyes…_

 _It was as if someone had taken a red-hot knife and repeatedly jammed it into her eye sockets. Someone with a sadistic, malicious nature and a twisted sense of humor that enjoyed watching her misery as they attempted to carve her face like a jack-o'-lantern._

 _This pain made all the rest she felt pale in comparison. It was unbearable._

 _She just wanted it to stop…_

… _stop…_

 _before it drove her…_

 _to the brink of insanity…_

* * *

To say that Death the Kid was scared out of his mind, was a colossal understatement. Like saying, 'the Grand Canyon was just a big crack in the ground,' 'that Black*Star was only a little obnoxious,' or that 'symmetry was important to him!' After the effects of the explosion had passed he quickly turned his head in every direction to make sure all of his friends were all okay.

Liz and Patti were by his side, still in their gun forms, so the blast had not affected them as much as it could have.

Tsubaki had also been in her weapon form so she too was fine; now human again and assisting Black*Star in getting back on his feet. He sighed to himself, happy that they had made it out in one piece. Which left…

"MAKA?"

"SOUL?"

No, Death the Kid was more than scared.

In that moment, when neither answered…

…he was terrified

 **Kid's POV**

I looked around desperate to find them, it wasn't hard. Across the room on the left side of the doorway was the impression Maka had made when she was thrown into it by the blast; she was still there…

I ran as fast as I could to her, still clutching Liz and Patti who had yet to turn back. _'They must be stunned,'_ I though flittingly as I threw the girls over my shoulders before stopping right in front of her. They must have snapped out of it because I heard the sound of two soft thuds hit the ground behind me, then a double gasp.

I couldn't blame them, the sight was enough to fill my veins to the brim with ice.

Maka was still embedded halfway into the stone, mouth slightly open with eyes wide and unblinking. A small trail of blood was leaking from one corner of her mouth and I barely even acknowledged the asymmetry of it. Blood was still trickling from her knees, she had burn marks on her face and clothes, but what did you expect to happen when you took an attack at point blank range?

I was frozen in place.

I couldn't move, or maybe I just refused to.

Subconsciously hoping that if I stared long enough, the scene before me would change into something less horrific. I had seen all my friends injured before, in our line of work this was nothing new… Hell, every day people went in and they knew there was a good chance you might never come back!

But this was different, this was my friend, this was Maka Albarn.

Maka FUCKING Albarn!

The girl that took down the kishin Asura with a single punch and came back, standing tall with a smile full of courage.

But the only look she had now was one of unbelievable shock. ' _It all happened to fast… she must not have even registered the pain,'_ I thought trembling. _'This doesn't make any sense!'_

"Maka…"

The sound of Soul's voice shattered the silence that had fallen over the three of us as we stared at our friend.

"Maka, can you hear me?"

He was making his way over to us as fast as he could whilst clutching his left side, he must have transformed mid flight and landed on it.

"Maka wake—"

But Soul was cut off by the echoing thud of Maka's body falling from the wall and hitting the ground, she didn't even flinch.

"OH MY GOD," Liz screamed as she grabbed onto her sister and cried hard into her right shoulder. Patti's eyes shook in pure sorrow as she stared for a few seconds more before she too could no longer stand it. She held her older sister in a fierce hug and buried her face in her long dirty blonde hair, crying just a hard.

The combination of the fall and scream was enough to get me moving; Soul and I practically threw ourselves at Maka's fallen form. As quickly and gently as we could I helped Soul flip Maka over; her expression hadn't changed and I felt my heart sink into my stomach. He began shaking her a bit to see if he could rouse her.

"Maka! Come on Maka, wake up!" he kept trying but she made no move to show that she was even conscious. Or alive…

I shook my head to chase away such cold and unforgiving thoughts, there were more important things to worry about at the moment.

' _I can not afford to fall apart right now.'_

"MAKA GODDAMNIT DON'T YOU BE DEAD! DON'T DIE! YOU BETTER JUST BE FUCKING AROUND WITH ME CAUSE IF YOU DIE I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!"

By then Black*Star and Tsubaki had joined us, I faintly picked up Tsubaki's frightened gasp as she took everything in, but that was all. For once Black*Star had nothing to say.

It was shocking to see Soul's normally cool composure completely gone but it was understandable given the situation, this was his meister, his best friend and as far as any of us knew his only family. We all knew, deep down, if something ever happed to Maka, Soul would fall apart.

When his incessant shaking had gotten to the point of potentially making things worse I gripped his shoulders and threw him off her.

"Enough of that Soul! You'll only manage to injure her further! Is that what you want!"

Soul looked angrily at me for pushing him away and his expression displayed that at this moment he wanted nothing more than to fight me, but the looked drastically fell by the time I had finished. He looked both astonished and horrified at the thought and turned away ashamed, teeth grit tightly together as if holding in tears. But I didn't blame him for feeling the way he did or how he was acting and I would tell him that. Later.

I set to work checking Maka's vitals; her pulse was slow and she was barely breathing. This was not looking good.

Placing an arm under her head and knees I lifted her up bridal style and with wide strides I made for the exit.

"Wait, what are—"

"She's alive but barely," I said cutting off the hysterical weapon with a blunt response.

"If we want to save her we need to leave now. Since I'm the fastest I'll go on ahead and take her to Professor Stein on Beelzebub."

"No, she my meister I'll take her," _'Is he really going to be stubborn at a time this? His stupid pride is going to cost Maka her life if I don't get going now!'_

"Soul listen to me, you're injured as well and you can't carry Maka and steer with only one arm," I tried to reason.

"I said I'll—" he made to get up but his side was keeping him from moving too quickly.

I had had just about enough of this, I could feel my rage building and was about to give Soul a piece of my mind, when someone beat me to it.

Black*Star had appeared right in front of Soul, grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him close to his face.

"You…" his voice was the softest we had ever heard it.

"… FUCKING IDIOT. ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH ALL THIS BULLSHIT?"

Black*Star's sudden ranting had once again shocked us into submission. "Black*Star…," but Tsubaki was cut off as he continued.

"WHERE THE FUCK DO YOU GET OFF MAKING THIS ABOUT YOU? YOUR PARTNER IS OVER THERE LOOKING LIKE A FREASH CORPSE," he point at me without taking his eyes off Soul. "AND INSTEAD OF LETTING HER GO WITH SOMEBODY THAT CAN GET HER HELP THE FASTEST YOU'RE HERE TRYING TO ARGUE THAT BECAUSE SHE'S YOUR MEISTER ONLY YOU CAN DO IT?"

Soul looked at his other best friend in complete astonishment in his wide scarlet eyes, we were all astonished, Black*Star was not normally the voice of reason.

"YOUR NOT THE ONLY FUCKING PERSON IN THE WORLD THAT CARES ABOUT HER, YOU JACKASS. SO UNLESS YOU WANT ALL OF US TO LOSE HER, SHUT YOUR GODDAMN MOUTH AND START USING YOUR HEAD BEFORE I KNOCK THE SENSE BACK INTO IT."

With that Black*Star pushed Soul away from him, he stumbled but didn't fall. His wide-eyed stare dropped to his feet as Black*Star turned to me, "WELL? WHAT THE HELL YOU STILL DOING HERE? GO."

He did not need to tell me twice, I nodded to him in thanks, then to my own partners who had lifted their heads during his lecture. They understood as shifted my eyes to Soul, they would ride with him, though it didn't seem like he was in any shape to drive at the moment.

But that was of little concern; I ran out of the room and summoned Beelzebub without stopping. Once on I shot out of the temple at full speed, I held Maka close to me as the desert sand rushed passed us.

' _Don't worry Maka, I will not let you die,'_ and this was a promise I intended to keep.

I tried to keep the ride as smooth as possible as not to jostle her; she had sustained enough injuries today without my carelessness adding more.

We were in luck, with out having to wait for the others it only took us fifteen out of the original 40 minutes to get back to Death City. But once within the city limits I still flew at full speed; Maka was running out of time, we were too close to getting her the help she needed that I couldn't possibly slow down now. Not when she when was counting on me, when needed me the most.

Eyes narrowed in determination and purpose I headed straight for the doors of the DWMA, they burst wide open as I crashed through. Then set my soul perception on full blast in search of the one person who could help her now.

' _Found you,'_ and I made my way to the death room…

* * *

I broke down the door to the death room…

Father could punish me for it later, besides this was an emergency.

We shot down the long guillotine hallway and it was only then that I slowed, dropping us both back to the ground to land on the platform and we skid to a halt before my father and Professor Stein.

"Kid? What is the—" but I didn't let my father finish before I turned my full focus on Stein.

"Professor, I don't have time to explain but Maka needs help," the panic was evident in my voice and I didn't try to hide it. Maka's life was hanging by a thread and there was no way that wouldn't make me panic.

Stein didn't need to hear more, "To the dispensary. Now."

He ran out of the room with me following close at his heels, after calling Beelzebub back to my right hand.

By now the bell had rung and students were headed to their final class of the day, but we ignored them. It wasn't too difficult, as soon as the students saw us they gave us a wide birth to move. Not surprising, as Stein was the most feared and respected teacher in the entire school and I was the son of Death, everyone knew that if we were running towards something then they better get the hell out of our way.

That did nothing to stop the whispers however. Like how everyone knew me they also knew my friends; all the other members of our resonance team and Maka especially for her defeat of Asura. _'When was that now… six months ago? No now I remember, its been eight,'_ and for once the thought of my favorite number brought me no joy.

"What's up with Professor Stein and Death the Kid?"

"I think I saw Kid carrying someone, they must be taking them to the dispensary."

"Who is that?"

"No way is that Maka Albarn?"

At the sound of her name, the whispers multiplied and rose in volume.

"The girl who took down the Kishin! That's her?"

"It couldn't be, now way someone like that could be injured so badly!"

"Holy shit, what happened to her?"

"I don't know but whatever she fought must have been pretty nasty for her to end up like that."

"Do you think she's… dead?"

That last question made my blood boil and I sent a fierce glare in the direction it came from. Witnessing the frightened expressions displayed on the faces of those students gave me a sadistic sense of glee, but it was only for a moment.

I looked down at Maka and tightened my grip on her, but only slightly, I was too afraid I would hurt her. She looked so lifeless, so fragile, so broken; this was nothing like the girl I knew and I hated it. Almost as much I hated asymmetry… no I thought, _'Seeing you like this, that's what I hate more. You were never meant to look like this.'_

I felt my eyes burn as tears of my own began to swell, but I held them back as I bit my lower lip. _'NO, no tears… not yet, you can weep after you learn that she will be alright.'_

When I looked up again we had just arrived outside of the dispensary, I hadn't even noticed how far we had run, this was all the way on the other side of the school.

Stein slammed the door open and rushed inside and he went to wash his hands in the small sink in the corner.

"Put her on the bed," he threw over his shoulder and I did as I was told. I laid her down gently on the nearest empty bed, looking at her face I once again noticed that persistent line of blood at her mouth and couldn't help myself from wiping it away with my thumb. _'This situation is worse enough without adding asymmetrical blood stains don't you think,'_ I thought silently to her, though I knew she couldn't hear me.

"Stein what—" Came the voice of Mira Naigus, as she emerged from the back of the room.

She cut herself off when she caught sight of Maka, "Naigus I need your help," said Stein as his eyes shifted toward me, "you know what to do." She moved to usher me out of the room, "What I can't just leave! What if you need my help?"

"Oh really Kid, I didn't know you were trained in medical procedures," I glared at Stein for his mocking tone, but he ignored me in favor of readying the medical tools.

I was about to respond when Naigus put a comforting hand on my shoulder to silence me.

"Trust me Kid, you don't want to see this"

"But—"

"Like Stein said, your not trained for this, you'll only get in the way and I know that is the last thing you want."

I narrowed my eyes as I stared at my feet, I knew she was right but doing nothing made me feel completely useless. Still I had done my small part and gotten her here, so the least I could now was let actual medics help her from here on out.

Clenching my hands into tight fists I stole one last glance at Maka then looked up into Naigus' eyes, the only part of her face not covered by bandages, "Please, I beg you, just help her."

"We'll do everything we can," she tightened her own grip before she dropped her hand and pushed me gently out the door.

Once shut I slumped against the wood, emotionally and physically exhausted yet I couldn't allow myself to rest. I was sure that I wouldn't be able to even if I tried; I was too restless. I wanted, no needed to do something, anything, but there was nothing; at least nothing that I thought that would make much of a difference.

I lowered my head until I was sure my eyes were completely shadowed by bangs and bit my lip again as I once again tried to withhold the treacherous tears.

Doing nothing was giving my neurotic mind time to think, and this train of thought never ended well when I was in a state of mind like this. A drawback of having OCD, one of many, I suppose. Having a critical eye for details and an irrepressible need for perfection could be quite an asset in strategic battles, but at the same time it was also a weakness that could easily be exploited. Making me second-guess, berate and hold myself back to the point were I blocked everything out but my mental struggles.

Paranoia, self-doubt and an irrational fear of not performing just so, all this stemmed from it and were fears that I regularly dealt with, especially in my lower moments.

To the others, my displays of depression and anxiety over symmetry would appear as nothing more than the ravings of a severely disturbed adolescent and in a way they were right. I was disturbed, but no in the way they thought.

My OCD, my need for order that father had instilled within me at my creation, was the core of my being, it was who I was. I was born with the sole purpose to bring and maintain order; even to the littlest things in life that seemed trivial to everyone else, I felt compelled to do so because it was nature.

To fail at this filled me with all those negative emotions, to fail at righting trivial errors like folding the toilet paper mattered so greatly for the simple fact that _were_ trivial.

These were little things that were so easy to control, to maintain the order of that to not have the ability to manage them left me feeling pathetic. What would happen if I were faced with an actual threat? If I couldn't even do something so simple how could I ever hope to do something on a vastly larger scale. You need to walk before you can run, but how do people expect me to run if there were times I felt I couldn't even crawl…

The muffled voices of Professor Stein and Naigus as they worked could be heard every so often and I thought of Maka.

' _How is it that you were able to fight something as powerful as Asura and not get this injured? Yet after a mission like this…'_ I barley register raising my left had and gripping the cursed white stripes that I openly despised for ruined my symmetry, _'…here you are in a hospital bed.'_

The hold I had on my hair threatened to tear the strands out by their roots but I couldn't care less, physical pain was far more easy to deal with than emotional.

I'm not sure how long I stayed like this, slumped against the dispensary's door, head down and hair in a death grip, but I guess it was long enough for the others to get back to Death City. I heard them coming from all the way down the hall, numerous pairs of feet pounded against the polished tile floor before stopping in front of me but I didn't raise my head.

Still panting and gasping for breath, Tsubaki was the first to speak, "Maka is she—"

"They're working on her now."

After catching their breath they all fell silent, the girls moved to sit on the small bench across from the door while Black*Star simply leaned on the wall next to them. Soul took purchase on the floor directly in front of me and I finally raised my eyes to look at him.

He was staring ahead as if trying to look passed me and the wood to Maka, when he caught my stare he seemed shrink a little in on himself. _'He's still upset about earlier,'_ I realized as he shifted his eyes from me to the floor and back. Mustering up more energy than I actually had I shook my head slightly and sent him smile of understanding, but I knew it looked pained.

He didn't return it but he gave a small nod, his eyes showing hints of gratitude beneath the mass worry.

The rest of the day was spent in total silence as we waited, only broken sometime later by the arrival of Miss Marie. Apparently Stein had at some point called my father and asked for Marie's assistance. This had awoken Soul and Black*Star from their stupor and practically suffocating her as they attempted to ask her what was happening with Maka that Stein would need her help, but she remained impressively tight-lipped. She entered the room quickly and closed the door just as fast, whatever the situation was, her behavior was disheartening.

We stayed outside the dispensary well into the night, until Sid was finally forced to kick us out around midnight. Soul was allowed to stay, but only long enough to be looked at himself by Sid since the others were busy.

The rest of us used this as an excuse to remain, if only for a few more minutes and though it was obvious Sid knew this, he ignored it. I'm pretty sure at one point I heard him mumble, "When I was alive I never liked keeping a team from being near a fallen comrade. That's just the kind of man I was."

We split up into our smaller groups as we head home for the night, trying to keep our feet moving forward instead of looking back.

When it was just Liz, Patti and myself, Patti decided it was time to break the long silence.

"Sis?" Her voice was low and soft and uncertain, nothing like her normal childish and happy tone.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think Maka … will be okay?"

Liz and I both stiffened at her sister's innocent question, what could she say? "I… I dunno. But I hope she will, things just… wouldn't be the same without her."

Patti nodded her head as we finally reached the Gallows

' _She's right, all we could do was hope,'_ I thought as the girls and I parted ways for the night, I faintly heard the closing of only one door behind me. Most likely the two of them would spend the night together and after what they had seen today they probably didn't feel comfortable being alone.

I entered my room, changed into some black silk pajamas, brushed my teeth in the adjacent bathroom and collapsed in the middle of my bed. I was tired but my eyes refused to shut so I stared at my ceiling in the dark, wondering, somewhat hoping that tomorrow when I wake up this will all have been a twisted, warped dream.

I think it was around 3:38 in the morning that the sandman finally took pity on me and I fell into unconsciousness, an equally restless night to end my restless day.

 **And on that note I give you the end of chapter three, I hope it was worth the wait and exceeds all your expectations. I hope you all don't mind how philosophical and psychological this turned out, but I think it adds quite a bit of depth into their situations. I really enjoyed doing so for Kid, as I feel people could really analyze and rationalize the purpose of his OCD and what its like for him to deal with all the time, not just as a source of comic relief. See you all here next time! Please follow, favorite and most importantly review! I love seeing your comments and they really boost my self-esteem and morale in regards to future writing.**


	4. Morning After: Shit's about to go Down

**Hello readers of fan-fiction, I am jpangel97 and we are back with another installment of "Through the Eyes of My Soul," I apologies for the wait but as you know it was and still is the holidays and like me you were probably spending it with your loved ones. I originally wanted this chapter to be longer but I figured this chapter was of a good enough length and you guys have been patient enough. So here we go, to chapter 4…**

 **The Morning After: Shit's about to go Down**

 **Soul's POV**

Sleep was a nightmare. Literally.

The walk home had lasted an eternity, or at least felt like one. Each step was painful and not because my side was still sore from being slammed into the ground by some fucked up exploding bug.

After properly bandaging a bruise the size of my fist, Sid had told me I still wasn't in the best shape to drive my motorcycle, but I'd be fine after a few days of taking it easy. _'Heh yeah, like that was likely to happen,'_ I thought to myself, echoed by a humorless chuckle.

I barely paid attention to where I was going, but that was okay, _'maybe getting lost somewhere will make everything seem less real. Or at least keep my mind off my problems.'_

The streets were empty and quiet, looking completely deserted, which was strange since Death City did have a decent amount of nightlife activity. That train of thought led me to think of Maka's creepy old man. _'Creeps probably at Chupa Cabras drinking away and having a merry old time,'_ I thought rolling my eyes at how typical that kind of behavior was for someone like him. Then a new thought struck me, _'did Spirit even know about her condition yet?'_

' _No… if he knew the whole city would have heard him screaming his head off by now,'_ the death scythe was many things, but subtle was not one of them. This was especially true when it came to his Maka; that man was probably the world's biggest drama queen, severely hormonal teenage girls had less mood swing than him.

But that didn't take away from one very important fact: Spirit Death Scythe Albarn loved his daughter. You could say a lot about the guy, both good and bad, but you couldn't deny that he loved Maka with everything he had. _'Even if she doesn't want to acknowledge or admit it, she knows that he cares. Even when he completely sucks at showing it to her.'_

A moment later I was greeted by the sight of my stationary feet against the sidewalk, so lost in thought I hadn't realized when I'd finally stopped walking. I can honestly say I was half hoping that I had in fact gotten myself lost in a random part of town so I could prolong going home. But sadly when I looked up I was outside my apartment building, I guess my brain was still clear enough to put my feet on autopilot.

I gave a long sighed and with no small amount of disappointment entered through the main lobby and up the stairs to our apartment on the fourth floor. _'Our apartment,'_ that thought instantly made me wince, it reminded me of Maka and that I was coming home without her.

I rested my forehead on our front door as I fished out my keys with clumsy fingers, missing the lock twice before inserting it correctly.

The moment I stepped foot in the door way I was met with an unexpected yet at the same time totally expected sexual assault from Blair.

"Oh Soul!"

Before I knew it I was pulled inside with my face shoved into Blair's breasts, "you finally came home, you naughty boy I was getting so lonely all here by my self!"

She continued to suffocating me for a few more seconds before she noticed that something was off; after all, I had never gone thing long without getting concussed after a situation like this before.

"Hey Soul," she paused, easing her hold on me to looking around in hopes of spotting the one person I knew wouldn't be there, "where's Maka?"

I pushed her away from me, head down to the floor, not noticing her shocked expression as I shuffled to the couch and slumped down with the heels of my hands pressing into my eyes.

"…"

"Something happened on that mission," it was a statement not a question.

Blair's playful tone of voice was gone, replaced with a seriousness I didn't know she possessed. My only reply was to dig my fingernails into my scalp, I didn't want to talk about this right now.

I ignored the soft patting made by her boots as she crossed the room over to me, I was about to tell her to leave me alone when I felt two warm arms wrap around my shoulders and back.

"Blair what—"

"You don't have to say anything," I felt the weight of her head as she rested it on my right shoulder.

"…"

"Blair is smart enough to read the signs and know that whatever it was, must have been painful," she tightened her grip. I let her.

"But I want you to know, that Blair is here to listen… whenever you're ready, " by then I was trembling at the sheer weight of all my suppressed emotions. I had been holding them all back from the moment we left the temple, but I just couldn't do it any more.

First one tear, then two, before I knew it I was balling like baby all over Blair as she held me. _'This so isn't cool,'_ I thought as I dug my nails in harder, shoulders shaking even more. _'Cool guys don't break down and turn into crybabies'_ but I kept on crying regardless. I guess, in a way I needed this and it was nice that Blair was showing me that wasn't going to leave me alone.

An ocean of tears later I was finally dried out and stopped the shaking. I didn't feel better, not really, but it did feel like a weight had been lifted from my soul. When she thought I was calmed down enough, Blair offered me some of the left over burnt fish that she made for herself. I was grateful for the gesture but I had no appetite and told her I was heading to bed.

She smiled in understanding as I slowly rose from the couch and walked to my room, I wished her goodnight before closing my door behind me.

* * *

That night or should I say what was left of it, was spent tossing and turning until my sheets and pillows were on the floor, but I didn't care.

All my energy was gone.

Drained right out of me the moment I saw my meister look like that; like an empty shell whose soul had just recently vacated them.

I think that moment will haunt me for the rest of my life. Hell… it already seemed to get a head start, every time I closed my eyes, even to blink the scene would replay in vivid detail. I would see Maka's body fall in slow motion as gravity pulled the dead weight of it to the harsh stone floor.

I had woke up in a cold sweat, breath coming out in heavy pants, eyes wide in panic and hands clawing at my scalp.

' _God, she was so still…'_

Not even a twitch, it was like she was already gone…

Subconsciously I gripped the fabric of my shirt, 'Is this… Is this how she felt… when I got this scar?'

If it was then I owned her a huge ass apology. Before I thought I understood how worried she was, back when I'd been in such a similar situation, but I realize now that I didn't. Not even close.

This nightmares were even worse than the ones I began having when I first became infected by the black blood.

I knew there was no way I'd be getting any more sleep, I turned my head in the direction of my window, the sky was still dark. Looking at the clock on my nightstand told me it was 5:20 in the morning. It was less than an hour before Maka and I normal got up to get ready for school, my heart clenched at the mental mention of her.

Deciding there since there was nothing else to do I got up from my bed and walked to the bathroom, for the first time, up before the sun and getting ready for school. Without Maka.

I decided to skip breakfast, I knew I hadn't eaten anything since lunch yesterday but I just didn't have the stomach to keep anything down.

I'd taken my time getting ready, my movements mechanical as I went about my regular route. Done and with time to spare, I considered maybe that watching some television would be a good distraction. But then I remembered that I'd left my bike at the academy, _'guess taking a long walk to the school it is.'_

I laced up my beat up old black and yellow sneakers and grabbed my bag, Blair was in cat form, sleeping on the couch. I noticed this morning that she'd cleaned the table in the kitchen and washed the dishes left in the sink, it wasn't much but it touching all the same. The ghost of a smile managed to find it's way to my lips, the most I'd been able to manage since yesterday as I quietly walked over and gave her ears a little scratch. She purred and leaned into my hand but didn't wake.

"Thanks Blair," I whispered before I headed out.

* * *

 **Kid's POV**

It felt like I had only shut my eyes a second ago, but no a tired glance at the still blaring clock revealed it was in fact time to get up. Despite the fact that I felt worse than I had when I finally went to sleep. I contemplated the consequences of simply lying there until a more appropriate (preferably symmetrical) time, but I knew I couldn't.

Since arriving three hours late on my first day, father had told me that if I planned on remaining a student at the academy the least I could do was follow the rules of it. So begrudgingly I relented and agreed to wake up and arrive at the designated, yet horribly asymmetrical time. (Why father refused to change the start time to eight, I will never know. I think he does it just because he knows it drives me crazy!)

But today I had another reason. I hadn't forgotten for a second of what transpired the day before and I had every intension of going to the dispensary and finding out _exactly_ what the nature of Maka's condition was.

The solidification of my decision filled me with purpose and I found the strength to lift myself out of bed.

Which turned out to be a bad idea as I began to feel light head and the world became a spinning series of black dots.

' _Note to self: when waking up and feeling like complete and utter crap, get out of bed slowly to avoid giving yourself head rush,'_ I held my head with both hands to try and reduce the brain in the blender sensation.

Once it passed I threw off my covers and _slowly_ got up, when the feeling failed to return I finally silenced the infernal beeping of the alarm, I sighed in relief and turned to my messy bed.

' _All right first things first, return the bed to it's proper symmetrical states,'_ as quickly and efficiently as possible I realigned the sheets, fluffed the pillows and measure both angle and length of the comforter on both sides. I looked over my work with a pleased smirk, _'perfect, now to get dressed,'_ I turned and made my way over to wardrobe on the left side of the room.

Throwing open the doors I was greeted by the familiar sight of my usual suit, along with the extra pairs that I also own. (Natural I had eight sets of them in total.)

This wardrobe was specifically for the clothes I wore on missions and to school, while the other wardrobe directly opposite from it, was reserved for my more casual attire. I grabbed one by the hanger, then opened two drawers on the bottom to retrieve a pair of socks and black boxers.

Once I had everything that I needed I wasted no time entering my bathroom and started the shower. The steady stream of pulsing water helped to awaken the rest of my body and the rising steam further calmed my troubled mind.

But it wasn't enough to keep all of my worries at bay; I barely noticed as my hands lathered the shampoo into my hair or scrubbed the soap across my skin.

All thoughts ran in circles, repeating in an endless loop, back to the beginning, back to Maka, as I watched the water droplets that clung to my bangs fall and mix with soap suds that ran into the drain.

I slipped out soon after, rapping a towel around my waist and walking over to the mirror to brush my teeth. While mindlessly going through the motions I glanced up at my reflection and grimaced; though I was clean I was clearly not well rested.

The bloodshot eyes with dark circles underneath displayed that quite well. I spit the remaining foam into the sink and leaned against it, _'You're overreacting,'_ I thought as my eyes narrowed.

' _It probably just looks worse than it actually is,'_ my hands tightened their grip on the porcelain as I tried to reassure myself. But no matter how hard I tried I couldn't shake the nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach.

With I sigh of frustration I wiped myself away from the sink and quickly dressed. After checking to make sure my appearance was perfectly symmetrical I went to Liz's room to wake the girls.

Like always, the manor was quiet at this hour, the hallways dark as morning light was sluggishly creeping through the window from behind thick clouds. I normally enjoyed the peace brought by the silence, but today, walking alone in the stillness brought a sense of discomfort.

Opening the door I was surprised at what I found, or more specifically what I didn't find. Liz's bed was a tangled mess of sheets but it lack any occupant, there were clothes littering the floor but there was no one throwing out more from the closet or drawers in search of today's out fit, there wasn't even the sound of a blow-dryer on full blast.

' _Odd, where could they be? They never get up this early by choice.'_

I decided to go down to the kitchen and make the girls breakfast, wherever they were the smell of food was sure to lure them in. Besides, any prolonged exposure to the sheer disarray and lack of any symmetry whatsoever of this room would no doubt cause me to have a sever panic attack.

After promptly slamming the door of this disaster of a room shut I spun on my heels in the direction of the stairs. I had just made it to the bottom and was about to turn into kitchen when I hear noise coming from the living room.

"Liz? Patti?"

Sure enough there sat both of my weapons, fully dressed and watching some morning talk show on the living room's flat screen.

"Morning Kid," Liz said in a quiet voice. Patti looked up from her coloring book to give me a small wave before going back to her drawing.

"We just finished breakfast a little while ago but we made sure to save you some toast…"

"Uh…," I really had no idea what to say, this was highly unusual behavior from these two.

' _What in the world is going on? They are up before I am without prior prompting, completely dressed…'_

"… don't worry we already cut the pieces so they're perfectly symmetrical," _'…and now Liz is telling me they made me breakfast_ _ **symmetrically**_ _? I must have somehow entered a parallel universe, there is no other rational explanation for such behavior otherwise.'_

I shook my head to snap myself out of my stupor when I noticed Liz's confused expression towards my silence.

"What are you two doing up already?"

"I could ask you the same question. It normally takes you forever to get yourself perfectly symmetrical, let alone checking everything in the house before you leave."

Actually taking a moment to think about it, Liz was right. A swift glance in the direction of the living room clock confirmed it as well. It was only 6:45 and I had managed to complete all my self-preparation in a fraction of the time, an impressive record when compared to my history.

"I…guess your right, but you still haven't answered my question," I said, raising an eyebrow.

Liz looked down, nervously playing with her fingers, "We… actually did sleep all that much last night. Patti and I kept having nightmares… so we thought it'd be better if we just got ready for school ha-ha…" she ended with an equally nervous chuckle as she brought her eyes back to my face.

I felt my own face soften as I gazed down at my shoes with a hollow smile, "You too huh?"

I didn't look up but I could feel both sister looking at me now, "I didn't have nightmares exactly, but I was tossing and turning for the better part of what little rest I managed to get."

"…"

"Thank you both for your thoughtfulness, but in light of recent circumstances I don't think I have much of an appetite."

Liz nodded and head to the kitchen, most likely to rap the leftovers in plastic for later. I stayed where I was by the stairs, arms crossed and leaned on the railing as I waited for her to come back.

"You know you can just say that you're worried," I turned to the source of the voice, slightly started. I blinked in surprise, having almost completely forgotten about the other girl in the room.

"What do you mean Patti?" Said girl had closed her coloring book and placed it down on the coffee table in front of her seat on the couch. She faced me head on, eyes looking straight into mine without a hint of hesitation. I couldn't say I was only slightly unnerved by it.

"You're worried about her, me and big sis are too. Same as everybody…," I felt my cheeks turn faint pink at her statement, her unwavering stare wasn't helping much either.

For once Patti was speaking seriously, no games or tricks. It was times like these that reminded me there was more to the girl in front of me than meets the eye. She and her sister had grown up on the streets, they had lived hard lives and many times they knew more than they let on. Putting up a front to avoid suspicion and fool potential threats, it was quite the useful survival tool. One I'm sure they perfected to a T before I came into the picture.

"…you don't have to hide it by using big fancy talk like you always do," my blush grew brighter and hotter at my embarrassment at her words.

"I think its real sweet you," she ended giving me a genuinely happy smile like the ones she normally sported.

"Thank you Patti," I replied with a small smile of my own.

"Besides," she said turning her face slightly to the left, eyes closed. Then opened her right to look at me she,

"what kind of boyfriend would you be, if you didn't worry about your future girlfriends health?"

"PATTI."

"Oh come on Kid, after everything that happened yesterday you can't tell me its cause your just friends," her smile was practically face splitting as my face did a fantastic job of impersonating the world's ripest red tomato.

As I tried to get my brain to form actual words instead of the ridiculous gibberish born of my embarrassment, nervousness and frustration, Liz entered the room.

"Alright, we can— Kid, why does your face look like you fell asleep sun tanning and got completely burn?"

That comment was the metaphorical straw that broke the camel's back, as simultaneously Patti burst into a giggle fit, while I crouched down on floor in utter humiliation.

"Can we please just go to school and not talk about this anymore?" my voice chocked up from despair. Liz watching us both in bewilderment.

* * *

The flight to the school was silent and relatively quick as we managed to land just in time to see Soul come up the last step.

He didn't look any better than he had yesterday; though with his head down I couldn't see his eyes so it made it difficult to tell. But if I had to guess from his slower steps and sagging shoulders, they couldn't be much different from mine.

It was a bit bizarre to see him come alone, he and Maka were almost always together, they were a pair, a package deal. It was just plain odd to see one without the other, my heart twisted uncomfortably at the thought for reasons I couldn't name.

Memories of this morning flashed before my eyes as Patti's words began to echo in my ears, but I immediately pushed them back. These notions were preposterous, insane even to imagine and had no place in a situation like this.

The three of us made our way over to him, "Hey, how ya been holding up?"

A stupid question I know, anyone with eyes could see how he was fairing at the moment, but there really was no right thing to say when you found yourself in situations such as these in life.

"Heh, can't ya tell?" See? He gave a weak impersonation of regular shark toothed grin, but it only came across as pained and wrong.

With his head now up we were finally able to look at his face; my suspicions confirmed when I saw that his eyes were redder than normal in an unhealthy way.

"Can't blame you," Liz said as she put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Yo"

From behind us came the familiar voice of the group's resident assassin as he and his ninja partner gravitated towards us from their place by the stairs. Black*Star and Tsubaki like the rest of us appeared to have gotten very little sleep, both appearing haggard and drained.

Both their clothes were wrinkled, Black*Star's spiky blue hair was even wilder than usual and Tsubaki's ponytail hung low and sloppy, almost touching the ground. It was so asymmetrical both my eye and hand witched at the need to correct them, but I held it back.

' _Later, later, later…,'_ I thought, fists clenched.

"Hey buddy, glad you could make it," his smile still showed pain but held a little less strain as Soul looked at his best friend. Black*Star gave a light grunt and a brief nod before looking Soul over with tired eyes.

"You look like shit," he stated bluntly.

"Heh, maybe so but you aren't going win any beauty pageants anytime soon either by the looks you."

"Speak for yourself, a big star like me manages to look good no matter what," he stated armed crossed.

As the two continued their banter I watched as a bit of the stiffness and tension loosened it's hold on their bodies, their posture become more relaxed, if only a little.

That's when I realized what they were doing; they were comforting each other in the best possible way they knew how: acting as they always did. Neither of them could act like yesterday never happened, they would never do that to Maka and downgrade her pain.

They both cared about her too much to ever do anything like that, but they also knew she wouldn't want them to suffer as they were, constantly fretting over her wellbeing. Humans could only handle so much emotionally before they broke themselves down, failing apart at the seams when a crucial thread was cut or pulled to the point of braking.

Soul and Black*Star were no exception, especially with how close they were to Maka; her best friend and the friend she had known since childhood who became something of a brother figure to her. To the them, whether they admitted it aloud or not, she was irreplaceable and her pain was theirs.

So for right now they acted as if all was normal, just another day where everything was fine. Steering their thoughts and the conversation away from the proverbial elephant in the room in order to forget the pain and worry over their dear friend, if only for a moment, before reality came crashing down on them again. She wouldn't hold it against them, they knew she would understand.

As this went on Tsubaki had shifted her position from behind Black*Star to beside Liz and Patti, exchanging small talk and quiet comforts. More willing to directly address the issue of her injured best friend, while respecting her meister's feelings by holding a separate conversation as he and Soul coped in their own way.

"As you can guess, we aren't doing much better dealing with this," she said softly, biting her lip as her eyes shifted to the assassin before resting her gaze on the ground in front of her.

"All I seem to think about is what happened. I keep picturing it in my mind… her just lying there… and I can't… do anything for her."

The dam she must be hold back seemed ready to burst as Tsubaki's eyes became glassy and her shoulders began to tremble. She brought her arms up to hug herself, whether to stifle the movement or keep herself together I didn't know, but it did no good either way.

"Tsubaki," the aforementioned girl lifted her head to look at the speaker.

Her partner had heard her whimpers, "Black*Star I—"

"Would Soul Eater, Death the Kid, Black*Star and their weapons please come to the death room immediately. You are needed."

It was Sid's voice.

Usually it was Death Scythe that made the announcements for father, the fact that it was someone else in light of this situation did not prove as promising.

From the corner of my eyes I saw the other stiffen, I knew what they were all thinking, _'could this have something to do with Maka?'_

Each of their expressions was a little different from the last; Soul's was completely blank as if unsure what to feel about such an announcement, Black*Star's face was hard and his eyes full of worry, Tsubaki was an odd mix of fear and hope, while Liz looked just plain nervous and Patti…

Patti's countenance was of a sad contemplation, as if taking all the clues she had been given and arrived at a far less cheery conclusion than she had hoped for.

It was her current disposition that sent shivers of foreboding up and down my spin.

But I refused to allow myself to accept the worst before I knew for sure as I stared up at the academy, fists clenched.

"No sense in dragging our feet" I threw over my shoulder, "let's go see what father wants," never looking back I made my way to the academy's front doors.

It should have been silent, there should have barely been anyone here besides the teachers so early in the morning, but it wasn't…

If anything attendance was probably the highest it's ever been!

Students who I had never seen before in my life seemed to be popping out of the woodwork, the halls were so crowded! All of them huddle together and whispering to one another like they had just discovered the secret of the century and couldn't bare keeping such knowledge to themselves any longer.

But as soon as they saw our group the massive congregation parted liked the Red Sea before Moses. The low murmuring of before had risen ten fold as we speed walked down the halls, the whispers following us like miasma.

"Look it's them!"

"There's Soul Eater! But where's his partner?"

"I don't know."

"Don't think I've seen them all together without her before."

"Yeah it's too weird."

"OMG! Do you think it really was her that Kid was carrying yesterday?"

"What, no way!"

"Then the rumors must be true!"

"That's impossible! Albarn took down the Kishin, there can't be anything stronger than that!"

"Looks like there was."

"Dude stop it don't joke like that, it's messed up."

"It must have been like a freak accident or something. Their group is made of the best meisters in the academy."

"Yeah, couldn't have been anything else, especially for someone of their level."

"If you ask me Albarn had it coming"

It was in that moment that time stood at a stand still…

' _WHO THE FUCK JUST SAID THAT?'_

We all froze the second those words left the perpetrator's lips, acutely aware of the hush that befallen the crowd at our abrupt halt.

No doubt they knew that uttering such words was crossing an unspoken line. They could sense the tension building as the silence choked them with it's iron grip on their throats.

My anger had been sparked and ignited into raging inferno at that sheer audacity of the punk who dared to say such a thing about Maka, who of all people didn't deserve any of what had happened yesterday or to be treated with such little respect over something she had no control over.

"What did you just say?" Soul's voice was soft, barley audible even in the silence but still heard by a few people at the front. His tone was of disbelief as he tried to process the implications of the words he had the displeasure of overhearing. Yet you could just make out the undertones of calm furry at the end.

Slowly, one by one each of us turned in the direction the statement had come from.

"You heard me," a lone male student came forward, his steps confident and cocky. No doubt he had meant for us to hear him.

He looked no older than the rest of us, so he was probably 15, with shaggy somewhat spikey dark green hair that was almost black. His clothing was simple, a white shirt under a moderately thick black jacket with white fur lining the hood, brown army style pants and black boots.

The boy's eyes were a cold obsidian; his expression was full of taunting and mockery as he observed us, looking at each of us briefly before closing his eyes and smirking as if he found us amusing.

"But I'll repeat myself since you don't appear to be all there: She. Had. It. Coming."

He leaned forward a bit and spoke the words slowly, as if speaking to either a small child, a foreigner who didn't speak English or to someone he dubbed as just plain stupid.

The nameless student was barely able to get his tongue to form the last syllable and get the sound passed his lips, before shit really started hitting the fan.

 **And that's all she wrote… at least for now anyways. As I said before, this was originally meant to be longer but I wanted to give you guy's something. So in terms of my original plan this is like half or three fourths of the chapter I wanted to post. If I haven't made this clear already I intend to make each new chapter progressively longer than the last when possible. I hope this chapter doesn't make anyone go 'SHE MADE US WAIT DAYS FOR THIS SHIT?' There isn't a lot of action here but that's because it's to look at how the rest of our main cast is dealing with this, it's not all about Kid and Maka (even though they are my Soul Eater OTP and this story is about a budding romance between them) Beside there will be a little fisticuffs action later. (Oh and before I forget, nameless-smack-talking-dude is modeled after a picture of GREEN from Pokémon I found on the internet while trying to decide what a total douchebag would look like. No offense to those who like GREEN, I just need a random guy and he was the only one I thought would look like they fit in this scenario) I hope one is also disappointed about Maka being MIA she will return I promise! But… just not yet :3 Anyway, to ALL readers who read chapter 3, WHY DO YOU HATE ME?**

 **I'm so sorry, I'm trying not be a review whore but 7! SERIOUSLY? No one wanted to be nice and make it 8 T-T I swear I love Death the Kid so much I was channeling his need for symmetry…**

 **Oh well see ya next time and as always be sure to read, follow, favorite and most importantly REVIEW! I swear if I have to look at the number seven any longer I will scream! Bye! ^_^**


	5. Taking a Stand for What You Believe In

**I am so sorry for the delay, I apologize beforehand as I'm sure you all were expecting something longer. But I like to think that these chapters write themselves and I think adding anything more would have just been unnecessary. However I guess that is really up to you guys, if there are any problems with this chapter TELL me and I WILL go back and edit this. So without further delay here is chapter five. Please enjoy.**

 **Taking a Stand for What You Believe In**

 **3** **rd** **Person's POV**

In the same instant the last word was complete the insolent young man was sent hurtling through the air and over the crowd…

…where he found himself meeting the wall directly across from the six friends, head first.

The force and speed of the impact was enough to send the pompous ass straight through the thick layer of drywall and concrete.

"Soul Eater…" he managed to rasp out from his crumpled position on the ground.

"…you… You son of a _bitch_!" he hollered in his attempt to right himself; the blow had been powerful enough to knock him onto one of the school's large terraces that students often utilized for battles or simply enjoying the weather on particularly pleasant days.

It seemed that today would be another of the frequent occasions it would bare witness to a duel between two more than willing opponents.

However what made this altercation different from countless others, was who had delivered the initial strike…

Soul looked on at the loudmouth who continued his weak attempts to get up and stand.

Speechless, as he tried to comprehend the scene his own two eyes where showing him, _'What. The. Hell?'_

' _This… this can't be the same person,'_ _'this can't possibly be real,'_ and thoughts of the like where the only things that Soul's brain seemed capable of processing. So he watched with unblinking eyes to determine if this was in fact reality or simply his mind just playing tricks on him from the stress.

But no matter how long he stared the image did not change; there in front of him stood the unmistakable figure of the _last_ person he _ever_ thought would be a part of a fight, let alone start one.

"Look again, it might surprise you," they said, voice soft but strong.

The entire mass of students, including the six stood stock still, eyes threatening to leap from their sockets. They had never believed such a thing would happen in their life time, nor that they would ever be witnesses to such an unfathomable feat.

For the first time this person spoke with not only confidence, but their entire disposition screamed of someone that refused to be pushed around.

For the first time in front of their peers, not a single stutter was heard as Crona addressed the boy that had finally managed to pick himself up from the ground; back straight without a hint of fear or hesitation.

As his eyes met those of his attacker the boy's face twisted into a mix of shock, hysteric disbelief and rage.

"WHAT? Your gunna tell me that you're the one that decked me!"

"…"

"Ha! _Please_ , everyone knows you're just a pathetic crybaby that clings to Albarn like a child or a lost puppy!"

"…"

"What? Don't know how to deal with someone telling the truth?"

Through all this ranting Crona had remained silent, yet his posture remained as it was, unwavering and sure. It appeared as if they had almost grown bored with listening to the others words, and that was what further angered the boy in front of them every second this continued.

"Come on! I dare you to say something you _emo freak_!"

He couldn't understand, Crona was a doormat, they were never this cool and aloof under pressure, even in the presence of Maka they had never had the kind of moxie they were showing now.

"Heh, wait I know, seeing Maka out of the picture finally pushed you to grow a spine didn't it."

A frown found it's way onto Crona's face at the jab.

' _Oh so that's how I can get a reaction out of you,'_ the boy thought with a sick sense of joy.

A taunting somewhat crazed smile stretching across his face before bellowing, "Finally decided to grow up instead of waiting for mommy to always be there to hold your hand and wipe your ass for you!"

He never saw what happened next…

before it was too late.

"Don't you dare…" Crona was gone in that same instant, vanished as if made of smoke that faded into nothing in thin air, they were a specter riding on the wind.

The eyes of the spectators expanded even further if possible as Crona reappeared in front of his foolish adversary, right fist raised and hovering above their left shoulder.

"…talk about her **like you have the right!** "

Crona's voice had risen into fearsome wail as they rammed their fist across the boy's face in the same manner used to deliver a backhand slap.

The imbecile who had started this mess was sent to the other side of the terrace, horizontally spinning in mid air from the hit's direction and momentum, bouncing twice before landing flat on his back across the expanse.

Pain erupted from his face, waves of agony radiated from the point of impact in steady pulses as he suspected his right cheekbone to be shattered. His back in no better condition; the entirety of it ached and throbbed in tandem with the erratic beats of his heart.

" **How dare you say her name as if it means nothing!** " they screeched in outrage, staring down the fallen young man with unblinking eyes.

" **As if SHE means nothing!** "

This tone, this volume, this anger; it was all so alien to come from such a gentle soul such as Crona. But perhaps that is what made the experience so frightening, as well as shocking.

Soul and the others had finally been released from their self-imposed immobility, crowding around the opening of the broken wall as they watched Crona begin to walk forward.

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT, IS THIS FOR REAL?" yelled Soul.

"I can't believe my flipping eyes!" said Liz in astonishment.

"After all this time… I-I never thought… this is…" Kid struggled to speak through his dumfounded stutter.

Tsubaki and Patti had no words for what they were witnessing; they too had never considered such a thing were even possible given their androgynous friend's personality.

"OH FUCK YEAH!"

They all turned to stare slack jawed at their blue haired friend, who sported a near face splitting grin that seemed to stretch almost to his ears.

"GO CRONA GO! YOUR GOD IS BEHIND YOU 100%! BEAT THIS MOFO INTO THE GROUND!"

At hearing his loud declaration Patti's shock disappeared, only to be replaced with pride and amusement at the sight of violence being display before her by her most timid and withdrawn of friends.

A crazed smile of happiness spread across her lips, her trademark disposition of joy bursting forth after being suppressed for far too long.

"Black*Star! What the fuck man!"

"Yeah dude, break his neck for Maka!"

"Your kidding right?" he asked looking at Soul, his smile never leaving. But Soul continued to look at him confused as Black*Star turned back to the action.

"For once Crona is standing up for what he believes in _and_ for himself," he said giving the scene a toothy grin as his eyes narrowed slightly.

"He's showing that little shit over there what happens when you mess with one of us… heh," closing his eyes he continued "almost makes up for the fact he's stealing the spotlight. But hey, I'm a merciful god, so I think I can forgive him just this one time."

Crona stood before the boy they had assaulted and watched as he, with great difficulty, turned his head to look at them.

Just as he opened his mouth to stupidly let loose another string of insults Crona's left hand shot out and fisted a handful of the boy's shirt, yanking him up so they faced one another. Heated glare meeting surprised and steadily growing terrified eyes.

"Who do you think you are, to say such mean and hurtful thing?" their voice had gone back to the soft tone that was more characteristic of them, but it still retained it's quiet strength and composure.

"To speak about Maka, the first person to ever show me what to be given kindness is like, what having a friend is like…"

"…"

"I may not know how to deal with a lot of things, but Maka's the reason I'm not so scared anymore to try. So for her to get hurt and have someone treat her like that," Crona's grip tightened, "I won't stand for it!"

"Black*Star, Soul, Kid, everyone…"

They turned their head a bit to acknowledge their friends who remained watching them by the crumbling wall.

"Please go,"

"WHAT? NO WAY!"

"COME ON!"

"Crona are you…"

"Yes Soul, I'm sure. You're needed somewhere else right now, I can handle him just fine on my own."

Black*Star and Patti had tried to resume their protest toward leaving, but the reminder of the overhead announcement cut off any further retorts they would have made otherwise.

"You're absolutely sure?"

"Without a doubt Kid," they replied, eyes back to those of their target who had begun to cower in their grip at the heat of those black orbs.

"Let's go, its obvious Crona can handle this and we've wasted enough time already."

"Right," was the group's response as they left the throng of students behind and made the final strides to the broken down door of the death room.

* * *

 **Kid's POV**

We didn't stop running.

Even as we made our way down the long guillotine hallway we did not slow down.

' _Déjà vu huh?'_

"What happened to the door?" Tsubaki asked as she looked over her shoulder at the long piece of metal that had once closed off the death room from the rest of the school. Oddly enough no one bothered to put it back on its hinges. Sometime I truly wonder just what the hell my father is thinking.

"Yeah Kid, what happened?" Liz asked, a teasing tone in her voice in addition to her cocky smile as she turned to me.

"… I was in a hurry to get Maka the proper care," I mumbled as I felt a light pink blush dust across the bride of my nose.

"Besides," I remarked as an after thought, "that door asymmetrical anyway."

"How typical. You're never gunna change are you?" Black*Star scoffed with a smirk.

"I could say the same about you."

"Heh, better believe it. It'd be a done right crime if this big star ever decided to stop shining, the world would never be the same."

"Yeah it would actually see some peace and quiet for once," Liz cut in.

"Guys that's enough. We're here," stated Tsubaki. We had just arrived at father's platform, where he stood awaiting our arrival.

"Hey. Hi. Hello children, thank you for coming."

The way he said that, the utter lack of the usually joviality in his tone that father always spoke with…

I could feel dread crawling up from my stomach to wrap it's cold fingers around my heart. _'Dear God, please don't let this mean what I think it does. Please tell me I wasn't too late.'_

"Lord Death, whatever you're going to tell us it's about Maka isn't?"

"…"

"It has to be if you wanted all of us here," the pace of Soul's speech was beginning to accelerate as his anxiety levels increased.

"…"

But father remained silent and the chilling feelings that gripped my heart tightened considerably.

"Lord Death please say something, if this is about my meister than I need to know what is happening with her," he'd become hysterical.

Still nothing. Not a word.

"Answer me damnit!"

At this point Soul was angry enough that he would have charged at father had Black*Star not been holding him back. Though judging by the looseness of the hold it was obvious he too was getting impatient with the silence; than again Black*Star was significantly stronger physically than most normal human beings.

It's not much of a stretch to believe he wouldn't need to use his full strength to restrain Soul, even in the haggard and exhausted state he was in now.

"Father I beg you, enough of these games!"

There was a pregnant as Soul continued his struggles and yells. I too had reached the end of my patience and had opened my mouth to speak my mind as well when father cut me off.

"You're right son."

That seemed to be enough to get Soul to stop talking, but he had by no means calmed down.

"Soul, everyone, forgive me. I understand this is already difficult enough for all of you and prolonging this will not make it easier or go away…"

"I'm not sure how to tell you this but…"

"I don't understand… she's not… she can't be dead can see!" clear panic shone in Tsubaki's eyes.

"No, no, no, no, no it can't be possible," Soul's voice was barely audible as he whisper more to himself than anyone else.

Black*Star tightened his hold on his best friend, both to comfort himself I think and to steady him as it appeared that Soul was losing the strength to remain upright on his own. Liz and Patti held each other's hands as they fought back tears.

I myself felt like my limbs had turned to stone and my heart had crashed into the lowest pits of my stomach. _'No he said nothing of the sort, not yet,'_ it was with great effort that I was able to muster up enough strength to look my father in the eye and speak.

"Father, whatever it is… good or bad we will take it either way. We have a right to know."

He stared intensely at me for eight seconds, "She's not dead," he said at last.

Though I knew there was more to what he had to say, most likely bad news, I felt a spark of hope rise in my chest regardless. I only prayed that it wouldn't come crashing down on me later. The others held their breath.

"She's in critical condition."

"WHAT?" shouted Black*Star as both Soul and I seemed to freeze at hearing those words.

"She's being tended to this very moment," these statements were blank, deadpan, like how one would relay a common fact.

"How seriously was she hurt?" Liz's voice was a tad wobbly from the effort of holding back her tears.

"Quite extensively actually," our attention was drawn to father's mirror. There stood Sid with his arms crossed as he stood in front of the reflective glass.

Though he could no longer move his facial muscles to display his state of mind or feelings, the air around him was grim and serious, _'I didn't even realize he was there.'_

Sid didn't wait for any of us to respond.

"In addition to her skinned knees, Maka sustained two cracked ribs, the bruising of several others, her left shoulder blade is shattered, her entire back is bruised, her face and legs have numerous scratches, along with first degree burns as well as a concussion."

"And that was just what Professor Stein told us he ascertained from a quick poking and prodding before he even stared to treat her," father's voice solemn as he finished the briefing.

' _Oh dear God I think I'm going to throw up.'_

I could already feel the bile at the back of my throat, good lord I was going to be sick.

My entire body was rigid, knuckles white from holding such tight fists that shook with all the effort of trying to appear composed.

' _All that, just from that one explosion? Possibly more? I remember all of us… being thrown around like ragdolls and getting slammed into the ground repeatedly by Asura; hit after hit she took… and still she managed to get up afterwards. Why, why do this to us now?'_

My knees were close to buckling and I think the only reason I hadn't collapsed yet was through sheer force of will.

"But wait," our focus shifted from father and Sid to Patti.

"If Maka's hurt like that, why was Miss Marie called? I didn't think she was a doctor too."

Patti's observation was somehow capable of evading my inner horror and disgust at the situation, managing to reach far enough to touch the part of my mind that was still reasonable and coherent.

' _Yes I've been wondering about that myself,'_ from the corner of my eye I noticed Sid turn to my father, who in turn bowed his head in what I assumed was both sadness and shame.

"During his and Naigus' operation on her injuries, Maka's soul became sporadic and unstable, even more so as each wound was treated. Her soul was practically radiating pain and turmoil the second they attempted to bandage her torso."

Father paused for a moment and took a deep breath, as if just telling us was making him physically tired and he needed a break to gather enough energy to keep going.

"Such output like that from a single soul is taxing enough on one's self without further danger gained from the addition of physical injures. Stein and Naigus feared that the stress on her soul, on top of the stress on her body would have forced her heart into cardiac arrest. With the power of her healing wavelength, Miss Marie was the only option we had for calming her down."

No one said anything after that, what could we? Not only had we all just learned that our friend was severely injured, having multiple wounds acquired from a freak accident, but was also in critical condition and probably had been all night long!

Just what in the seven hells were we supposed to do now!

Then the silence was broken.

"When will we be able to see her?"

All eyes were on Tsubaki.

She was a wreck, but she must have lost the will to care. Hell she looked even more asymmetrical as a few of her tears escaped from only one of her eyes, but even I couldn't find the will to act on my OCD impulses.

"How long will it take to get her stable?"

"I'm afraid that I don't know the answer to that and Stein has prohibited any and all visits to the dispensary, so until he gives the okay no one is getting in or out."

"Kids, we understand this is a lot to take in right now and this may be too much for you to handle so we recommend that you all go ho—"

"No."

"No way!"

" **Fuck no**!"

"Nu uh"

"That ain't happening!"

"Kid—"

"You heard us father, we will _not_ be leaving."

Our outburst had silenced them both, but I was not done yet. "Doing so is the _last_ thing we want to do right now," I said shooting the words out with as much precision as used when firing Liz and Patti.

"We may not be able to do anything for Maka right now," I grit my teeth in bitterness as just saying those words was like tasting poison, "but the least we can do is be right here for her the second she wakes up."

"We aren't going anywhere," said Soul, who had been released from Black*Star's arms as the others also adding there confirmations.

"We are more than just her team, we are her friends and we will not just run away like cowards and abandon her when she needs us most. Now if you'll excuse us, we're late for class."

 **Oh snap! Crona's kicking ass! My apologies to people who get annoyed about how other authors tend to portray Crona's gender. If you'll allow me to explain; looking on the Wikipedia page for Soul Eater that I use for research to maintain continuity in this story, I read that Crona's gender is suppose to be androgynous. Though many of you may argue that they were a boy in the anime and a girl in the manga, I can tell you for a fact that this was done just to make it easier for audiences to interpret and just how they decided to translate it to make it easier for the readers. So any time I write about Crona I will be using 'they' or 'them,' again I'm sorry if anyone doesn't agree with this but that's just how I'm doing things. As for Black*Star calling them a guy, he just assumes that Crona is male.**

 **Anyway, did anyone notice a certain quote I added to this chapter? ^-^ I hope you did, knowing might help you later (note the subtle tones of foreshadowing)**

 **Now moving on to more important matters,** **I am setting up a little 'prompt submission' experiment. Meaning I would love for YOU may dear reads, to send me prompts for scenes you would like to see me attempt to incorporate as part of the story. While I already know how I want the plot of** **this story to go, I want to add your ideas and give this fan-fiction have more substance than just what can be taken from the overall plot. Further info on this is listed at the bottom of my profile so don't be afraid to look there, as well as check for any important bulletins on this story that I will most likely post on there. Prompt can be submitted via PM or in reviews as I check both religiously in my free time. Well that's all I have to say for my lovelies and remember, read, follow, favorite, and above all review. Until next time. ;)**


	6. School: The Distraction from Our Problem

**Welcome back my darlings, I know it's been awhile so a special thank all of my readers that have enjoyed the story so far. I know you guys loved how fast I updated in the beginning, I did too, but such is life and I am deeply grateful for your patience. If you want to know more about my updates in the future please check out my profile, all important story info can be found at the bottom. Further story prompt info can also be found there as well.**

 **Now to clear up some confusion about last chapter that was brought to my attention from a wonderful review I received from NutButterProductions. (No worries my friend, eventually I will reveal all)**

 **I regards to Black*Star and Soul's dialogue during Crona's fight, Black*Star is happy because Crona is finally showing their peers that they actually have a backbone and will use it when under the right motivation. He's also really proud that Crona is fighting back because they're defending Maka. (Remember that they are all close friends as well as teammates and in my story all share a very 'you mess with one of us you mess with all of us' mentality) They always have each other's backs no matter what and will come to the others rescue when called for. Soul was just in serious shock cause he really didn't see this coming ;D**

 **Moving on to Kid and Maka's relationship, as I have stated I want this to be a long story involving how I think a relationship between these two could go. Right now neither Kid nor Maka have** _ **romantic**_ **feelings per say, it's has more to do with I guess, hormones is the best way to explain it. They are both physically attracted to the other, but because they really showed no prior interest in romance in either the anime or manga they don't realize that they are. (Basically they're slowly going through the 'OMG you're an attractive specimen of the opposite sex!' epiphany. So look forward to awkward sexual tension! Yay! :3) The accident (while being extremely important to the story action wise) is also a way to get them to bond, strengthen their pre-existing friendship and will then develop romantically from that. (Fear not I know what I'm doing ^-^)**

 **(Again Crona is androgynous, but the gang will assume they are male)**

 **School: The Distraction from Our Problems**

 **3** **rd** **Person's POV**

The six of them walked in tense silence down the path beneath the guillotine arches, neither Lord Death nor Sid had made a move to stop them.

Perhaps they were still a bit stunned by the lashing out the group of youngsters had given them, or maybe it was that they had telepathically agreed that it was better to let the young adolescents deal with the events of the past twenty-four hours in their own way for now.

The air around them as they walked was stiff and agitated as they each mused over what Kid's father and Sid had suggested.

' _Really, did those two honestly think we would react well to an idea like that, let alone go through with it?'_ thought Kid as he lead the way, head bent and fists in his pockets. He wondered how much longer Stein would need to work on Maka and how much longer still it would be before any of them could see how she was doing in person.

The mystery of how much time could pass before either happened only managed to further agitate the young reaper. So much so that he began counting to eight in his mind in his effort to calm himself, then another seven times when that failed.

Soul walked in a position similar to Kid, _'No way in hell am I_ _ **not**_ _sticking round, least of all when Maka this banged up,'_ his eyes narrowed as his thoughts reminded him of his wounded meister. _'You can bet on it Bookworm, I promise I won't leave you here alone.'_

' _Tch, who do they think they are, telling a big star like me to go home?'_ Black*Star scoffed. _'Not only did I get even LESS sleep compared to the past few weeks, I did not drag my ass out of bed this morning just to be told I shouldn't have bothered and go home!'_ he complained, dragging his right gloved hand over his tired face.

The faint bags that Maka somehow noticed he'd been sporting the day before had grown darker and more apparent. More distinguishable now by his failed efforts of getting some rest that night, he was sure the others had noticed them as well but had yet to comment, and he was grateful for that.

' _How dare they say this is too much for a god like me to handle! They should be worrying less about us "handling this situation" and more about helping Maka.'_ Black*Star's teeth ground together as he continued to think, _'After all what kind of god would that make me if I let one of my disciples die while I wasn't around? Hell I'm sure all she needs is to bask in my glorious presence and she'll be better than before!'_ He gave a bittersweet smile at the afterthought.

' _Seriously? I can't believe lord Death would even think we'd want to be anywhere else_ _ **but**_ _near Maka right now, especially when she's hurt this bad. I mean Jesus Christ, all this barely happened a day ago!'_ Liz huffed as she and Patti walked hand in hand at the back of their small band of friends, Tsubaki following the boys quietly beside them.

Said young women was filled to the brim with woe for her best friend, her thoughts tethered to her health and it's deplorable state. ' **"She's in critical condition,"** ' she remembered Lord Death saying.

'" **WHAT?" shouted Black*Star as both Soul and Kid seemed to freeze at hearing those words.**

" **She's being tended to this very moment," these statements were blank, deadpan, like how one would relay a common fact.**

" **How seriously was she hurt?" Liz's voice was a tad wobbly from the effort of holding back her tears.**

" **Quite extensively actually,"** ' Tsubaki could feel her soul quiver at the memory as it played through her mind.

The last sentence echoing in her ears as more tears managed to slip passed her tightly closed eyelids, she bite down on her lower lip to prevent the release of the sobs that stung the back of her throat. Oh how she so desperately wanted to get rid of the terrible ache in her chest, she hadn't felt anything close to this kind of sorrow since the incident with her brother.

' _Oh Maka, I'm so sorry…'_

So lost in their pondering they were, that the young teens failed to notice how far they had walked. They had long since passed the fallen death room door, trekked the numerous empty halls of the academy until they found themselves standing before the entrance to class crescent moon.

They waited a moment, hesitant to go in. They knew none of them would be paying any attention at all, not really.

But it was better than leaving the academy just to waste the daylight hours in their respective houses where the only thing to do was to contemplate the possibility of permanently losing a good friend to horrible unforeseen circumstances.

Oh yes, for once they wanted to be in class; if only to distract themselves from the negative thoughts that wished to bury them alive.

"Lets just get this over with," said Soul as he stepped out from behind Kid to open the door that would lead them to their own personal hell for the next couple hours.

As the wooden door swung open a hush fell over the room, even Mifune who was asked to temporarily fill in for Professor Stein stopped his lecture on the different techniques one can use to defeat an above average level kishin, to gaze upon the new arrivals to his class.

Looking straight ahead without bothering to even glance at the other students, our young meisters and weapons silently made their way to their usual seats.

Tsubaki being her ever respectful and humble self was the only of the group to turn to Mifune to apologies for interruption their lateness had caused.

"Please forgive us Sensei, we didn't intend to cause a disruption," she ended with a formal Japanese bow.

Mifune may have been new to teaching, but the majority of the academy's students had taken an instant liking to him. Many having heard of him from the boisterous ranting of Black*Star after they had first crossed paths.

Though many tended to ignore the over-zealous and many times, highly exaggerated tales told by him, others couldn't help but show even the smallest bit of curiosity. After all, as big of a loudmouth as he is Black*Star is one of the DWMA's strongest and anyone able to go toe-to-toe with him and hold their own was definitely worthy of respect.

Especially if they could get the relentless idiot to shut up for more than five seconds at a time…

The samurai himself was more than pleased by the warm welcome his soon-to-be pupils had greeted him with on his first day and that showed throughout his instructing.

It was clear that the swordsmen took great joy being among the young and like a true samurai he performed his duties with pride and precision, expecting no less from his students.

Though a bit of a strict teacher Mifune was ever encouraging and supportive, nudging kids in the right direction more so than outright correcting them and this further earned his favor among the student body.

"It's quite alright. You may take your seat, fortunately we haven't gotten very far so you haven't missed anything too important. Now as I was saying…"

The rest of the lesson continued as if it were the same as any other ordinary day, save for a few obvious exceptions…

For once Soul, Black*Star, Liz and Patti, the usual slackers were paying close attention to Mifune's lesson. Their eyes facing forward, watching his every move and ears tuned to his every word; hell, even going as far as to take long and extremely detailed notes!

Something that did not go unnoticed by the yellow-gold eyes of one Death the Kid, who in contrast could not seem to focus on Mifune's words at all. At least not for very long, his lingering anger at his father and the suppressed worry that he still held over Maka's poor condition simply frazzled his mind too much to give his attention to anything else.

He watched as his friends played the part of the perfect student, except for Tsubaki who took to staring out the window after every few lines or so that she'd manage to get down before shaking her head and turning back to the front. A very lather, rinse and repeat pattern he noted.

Finally giving up on using class as a distraction from his problems, noting the irony of such a concept in the back of his mind, Kid fell back on the one thing that always helped to focus: symmetry.

As discreetly as possible Kid checked himself for any asymmetrical flaws that might have happened since his last check this morning. There wasn't much… and for once that really pissed him off.

Both of his shoes were perfectly clean and free of scuff marks, not a spec of dust could be found on his jacket or pants, the lengths of both sleeves and legs matching beautifully he noted in begrudging approval. The silver skull tie that mirrored his father's mask was shining like new and centered exactly at the base of his throat.

' _You've got to be fucking kidding me'_ he thought right eye twitching, _'the one freaking day I would have actually welcomed some stupid little asymmetrical flaw to fix and it's also the one fucking day where I'm completely perfect! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK? SYMMERTY! WHAT MIGHT I ASK YOU, IS THE MEANING OF THIS SICK GAME?'_ smacking his head onto his desk with a loud thud.

Thankfully it was ignore by others student, after a year of experiencing his outbursts firsthand his peers had grown accustomed to his sometimes over the top behavior and were soon able to go to class, watch him explode and not bat an eyelash.

But while everyone else in class seemed to overlook this queer behavior their sword welding sensei secretly observed, analyzed and categorized every move the six made. On top of being a highly capable fighter, Mifune was quite adequately skilled in reading people and their actions.

He'd obviously been told of the situation with Maka, after all there wasn't much point in keeping it a secret. So he knew the reason for this sudden role reversal of learning habits; in fact he had expected something like this. Mifune remembered well his second fight with Black*Star, how he attempted to get revenge on Arachnophobia for paralyzing his friend, the same friend that could once again be found in a sick bed.

The swordsmen's heart went out to the group, he had been briefed on the extent of the girl's condition as well and the odds themselves left one feeling… quite grim to say the least. Just thinking about it chilled the warrior to the bone. The fact that she was so young added to his sympathy for all of them.

But despite this he admired their loyalty to their wounded comrade, the strength it must take to keep it together, if only on the surface. Such tribulations were not meant for ones so young, but it was clear that for those with the power of the meister and weapon the rules of the normal did not always apply.

Such thoughts weighed on his heart like anchors in the depths of sadness, but he could ponder these notions later when he didn't have a class full of eager minds to teach. So he tucked them into a far off corner of his mind. Mifune knew there was nothing he could for the kids, so he let them be.

After what felt to be an eternity the bell rang to signal the beginning of lunch. The students quickly packing their things, herding into their respective friend groups and quickly headed for the cafeteria.

Gradually Soul and the others rose from their seats, if class had been difficult to sit through then there was no describing how much they dreaded going to lunch. With great reluctance the exited the classroom, only Black*Star taking notice of and returning the small nod Mifune shot them as they left.

* * *

As luck would have it they managed to blend into the crowd and make it to an empty table towards the back, the first thing to go right for them so far today.

The air surrounding the table was awkward; no one really spoke so the silence was filled with the sounds of chewing and the scraping of utensils, though it was a bit hard to say who was really eating.

Liz and Tsubaki picked at the meatloaf on their plates with little enthusiasm, Kid took to staring into space, occasionally bringing a spoonful of the vegetable soup into his mouth at Liz's insistence that he shouldn't skip two meals in a row. Patti sat quietly in between the two taking large, yet uncharacteristically slow bites from her cheeseburger, while across from her Soul simply moved around his mashed potatoes. Black*Star seemed to be the only one with an appetite as he stuffed mouthful after mouthful of whatever was on his plate into his waiting maw.

Halfway through lunch the double doors of the cafeteria were simultaneously thrust open, heads turned in the direction of the disturbance and a hush fell over the room.

The soft taps of rubber soles on the polished marble floor echoed in the stillness, the silence lingered as the owner of the footsteps moved about.

"Hello everyone, do you mind if I sit?"

"Of course Crona, we're friends after all."

"Tsubaki's right, you're not the new guy anymore. You don't even need to ask if you want to sit with us, the answer will always be yes," Liz ended with a friendly smile as Crona looked down. A burst of red was spreading across their pale cheeks yet a small happy smile was perfectly visible as they gently seated themselves on an empty stool next to her.

Despite how long it had been since their infamous betrayal, Crona still felt unworthy of being forgiven and the kindness the others continued to give. How they possibly could after everything they did remained a mystery to them. But it was one they made a point not to take for granted.

The sound of hands smacking the table startled Crona from their thoughts. They saw Black*Star leaning over the table, mouth spread in a face splitting grin.

"Hell yeah, especially after giving that dickhead such a beating this morning! Your god has never felt so proud of one of his disciples."

"P-proud… of me?" they asked with wide eyes.

"YOU BET! It was so awesome how you stomped that guy's ass! You just came out of nowhere like Bam!" said Patti as she wildly moved her hands around, punctuating her story with air punches and sound effects. "Then you were all 'Don't you dare' before you disappeared and we were all like 'where did he go?' before you reappeared right in front of him and BITCH SLAPPED THAT MOTHERFUCKER. And I as all like 'HOLY SHIT, YOUR LEVEL OF BADASS-ITUDE JUST WENT THROUGH THE FUCKING ROOF!"

"YOUR DAMN RIGHT IT DID!" Said Black*Star as he leaned across the table and through his arm around Crona's shoulders.

Liz smiled in endearment as she watched the two of them embarrass Crona with their loud praise and recounting their favorite parts of their battle.

Though could it really be considered a battle if one of the fighters pummeled the other before they even manages to retaliate? Just thinking about that display of righteous anger still left her mind reeling, who knew someone as timid as Crona was capable of something so out of character? Not taking into account that Crona had been raised by Medusa and used as a guinea pig for testing the effects of black blood.

Thinking back Liz brought herself a bit farther into her recent memory, right before the obnoxious jerk learned first hand how thick the DWMA's walls were. She felt the air around her simmer in tune with her steadily rising anger, then reach it's climax as the memory progresses to the guy's direct jabs at both Crona and Maka.

Unconsciously Liz felt her hands grip the edge of the table, her perfectly manicured nails digging into the wood and leaving faint scratches on its surface.

'That goddamn little **shit**. Who the hell does he think he is? He's just some cocky fuck-turd who probably thinks he can be a big shot if he starts talking shit about people that can kick his ass all the way to other side of the fucking globe! I swear if I ever see that punk again I'll rip his dick off with my bare hands, deep fry it and shove down he's scrawny, bitch-ass throat!'

At the completion of that thought Liz realized that she had been lowering her face until it was parallel to her lap, her hair further hiding her furious expression. Looking for something else to focus on and redirect her emotions she turned her head to right and finally took notice of the world outside their private bubble.

Besides the loud voices of Patti and Black*Star the room was almost completely silent.

All eyes remained glued to Crona as the varying clusters of students watched them in the same manner a scared animal would while observing a potentially lethal predator. On closer inspection she could make out a few of people here and there moving their lips in the direction of the person next to them.

The others seemed to have awoken from their near comatose state by the dynamic duo's enthusiastic story telling and appeared oblivious to everything else that was going on around them.

Liz was half tempted to inform her friends how they were being watched like zoo animals, but stopped herself just as the words were about to leave her tongue.

The fury in her eyes drained out of her as she looked at her friends; Soul was looking up from his plate and listening as Patti and Black*Star continued their epic tale. Remnants of his trademark grin showed on his face as he commented every now and again about how cool Crona had been for what they did. Kid no longer looked like a space cadet lost in the void as he too found himself as part of the conversation, giving his own praise to Crona as well as asking if they had struck the boy on the other side of his face after they'd left (for symmetrical purposes of course, which earned a hearty laugh from the rest of the table). Tsubaki merely watch on with content as the four continued going back and fourth, making remarks and asking questions about the rest of the fight. With Crona responding in a noticeably more confident manner, their confidence from earlier having yet to fade.

For the first time today her friends seemed to be acting like their normal selves. She would not spoil this moment of respite for them, so she would hold her tongue.

But that didn't mean she had to do nothing…

Eyes once again regaining their intensity Liz shot her heated stare at the spectators. Each one froze as they were caught in her gaze, her message clear: **MIND YOUR OWN GOD DAMN BUSINESS.**

Their heads couldn't turn fast enough and Liz was pretty sure a few even gave themselves whiplash.

It had been a long time since she'd needed to use her "sinister stare" as she and Patti liked to call it. Back when they had been on the streets in Brooklyn, that stare was what had helped her and Patti become "The Demons of Brooklyn" as well as intimidate and keep the creeps away.

It felt good to finally use that power for a reason other than breaking the law or trying to survive amongst dangerous criminals.

Not long after lunch ended and the rest of the day went by without any further hiccups. The good mood from lunch had managed to keep the friends going until the final bell rang.

They needed no words to tell them what to do next and together they walked as one in solemn procession towards the dispensary.

 **End Note: My deepest apologies if you're angry that you waited so long just for this, but I really wanted to give you guys something after going MIA for so long and I really just wanted to get this chapter over and done with, so think of it as just a filler. Also I'm a little disappointed no one noticed my references and quotes from chapters 2 and 5. Oh well the story is still young and I make a lot of references so there's still stuff to look forward. Hey lets make it a contest! If at least five people identify and can tell me where one or both of these references come from I try to update within the** **next five days. Sound fair?**


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